Ebony Grove Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Ebony Grove Cemetery in Hidalgo County. Now settle in, because this one's got roots that run deep into the South Texas soil. We're talkin' about a place shaped like a shield, guarded on three sides by the Arroyo Colorado, and standing watch over some of the oldest names in this stretch of the Rio Grande Valley.

The cemetery began in 1922, and the land it sits on came from a deed. The American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company, the outfit that developed Mercedes and roughly two hundred square miles of surrounding farmland, deeded nearly nine acres to the Mercedes Cemetery Association. That association still cares for the burial ground today.

Some things in Texas, you can count on. Now, the name. This place is called Ebony Grove, and the marker tells us it was named for the clusters of ebony trees growing on the land.

Not a bad namesake. Those trees are tough, deep-rooted, built for this climate, which is fitting. Among the earliest marked graves are those of a brother and sister, Maude Evans, who died in 1876, and Eugene E.

Evans, Jr., who died in 1881. Their remains were reinterred here from another cemetery. Moved, so they could rest in this ground together.

You walk through Ebony Grove and the landscape itself tells a story. Stone slab covers mark the earth. Gravestones bearing the symbols of fraternal organizations stand in ordered rows, because even out here on the edge of the Rio Grande Valley, people belonged to something, believed in something, and wanted that remembered.

The layout is deliberate, the plot lines ordered, the whole shape of the place like a shield rising up out of the bend of the Arroyo Colorado. Some cemeteries just hold the dead. This one looks like it was built to protect them.

What the marker says

This cemetery, named for the land's clusters of ebony trees, began in 1922. The American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company developed Mercedes and about 200 square miles of adjacent farmlands, also deeding nearly nine acres to the Mercedes Cemetery Association, which still cares for the burial ground. Among the earliest marked graves are those of siblings Maude Evans (d. 1876) and Eugene E. Evans, Jr. (d. 1881), whose remains were reinterred from another cemetery. Ebony Grove Cemetery is shaped like a shield, bounded by the Arroyo Colorado on three sides with an ordered plot layout. Notable landscape features include stone slab covers and fraternal organization gravestones. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2006