Edgewood Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Edgewood Cemetery, out in Van Zandt County. Settle in, because this one starts with a land deal and ends with a quiet plot of ground that nearly disappeared from memory altogether. Back in 1878, a District Judge-Elect by the name of John C.

Robertson, born in 1824, and his partner W. S. Herndon, born in 1837, gave up a piece of land for a railroad depot.

That single act started something. A community grew up around it, and that community became Edgewood. Now, the citizens of Canton didn't just wander over here out of curiosity.

They moved their shipping here from Wills Point, and the reason was something called the Van Zandt County Seat dispute. Politics and commerce, pulling people across the county like a current. The community took root.

And with any community that puts down real roots, eventually there's a cemetery. The earliest gravestone belongs to Bruce Echols, born in 1888, gone in 1889. One year on this earth.

That stone standing there is the oldest marker in the place, and it marks the briefest of lives. Judge Robertson, who helped start all of this, gave the cemetery site to the town in 1896. A generous act.

But here's where the story takes a turn: the deed was lost. Just gone. And without that legal foundation, burials declined.

The last interment came sometime in the 1920s, and then the place fell into long neglect, the kind that swallows a cemetery slowly, year by year, until the living forget the dead were ever there. But somebody remembered. The cemetery was recently restored, and it goes by another name too, Northside Cemetery, depending on who you ask.

Robertson died in 1895. Herndon in 1903. They gave the land that started a town, and the town nearly let their gift disappear into the brush.

It didn't, though. That's the thing about a cemetery. If you tend it, it tends to remember.

What the marker says

District Judge-Elect John C. Robertson (1824-1895) and his partner, W. S. Herndon (1837-1903), gave land in 1878 for a railroad depot. This started Edgewood community. Citizens of Canton moved their shipping here from Wills Point due to the Van Zandt County Seat dispute. The earliest gravestone in this community cemetery is that of Bruce Echols (1888-1889). Judge Robertson gave this site to the town in 1896, but the deed was lost and burials declined. The last interment was in the 1920s. Recently restored after long neglect, this plot is also known as Northside Cemetery. (1978)