Edith Ford Memorial Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's what I know about the Edith Ford Memorial Cemetery, up in Hemphill County. Now, every town's got a hill where the stories end up. In Canadian, Texas, that hill sits on the east side of town, and people had already been laid to rest there as far back as 1883.

But the story that gives the place its shape starts in 1894, when Thomas T. McGee was buried on that hill. McGee wasn't just anybody.

He was the first Sheriff of the town of Canadian. The first one. So when he went into the ground up on that rise, you could say the hill started keeping some serious company.

His widow, Mary, saw to it the land was purchased and taken care of. For a while, folks knew it simply as the McGee Cemetery. Fair enough.

But names on a hill have a way of changing over time. Come 1933, more land was bought by the Youngs. They went further than just acquiring ground.

They established a fund to maintain the cemetery, thinking ahead to the years that would follow. And they gave the place a new name. They called it the Edith Ford Memorial Cemetery, in honor of Robert Young's aunt, the woman who had raised him.

That's the kind of tribute that tends to last. In 1989, the cemetery was given to Hemphill County itself, so the county now holds the ground where so much of its own history rests. And here is the detail that stops you cold when you really sit with it.

Thirteen of the eighteen judges of Hemphill County are buried there. Not a few. Not some.

Thirteen out of eighteen. Along with prominent citizens of Canadian who helped establish and develop Hemphill County from the ground up. That hill on the east side of town started with grave markers in 1883 and a sheriff in 1894.

What it became is the resting place of the very people who built the county around it. The ground remembers even when the rest of us have moved on down the road.

What the marker says

Thomas T. McGee, the first Sheriff of the town of Canadian, was buried in 1894 on a hill on the east side of town. There were already grave markers there dating back to 1883. McGee’s widow, Mary, purchased the land and it became known as the McGee cemetery. More land was bought in 1933 by the Youngs who established a fund to maintain the cemetery. They renamed it Edith Ford Memorial Cemetery in honor of Robert Young’s aunt who raised him. In 1989, the cemetery was given to Hemphiill County. Thirteen of eighteen judges of Hemphill County are buried here as well as prominent citizens of Canadian who assisted in the establishment and development of Hemphill County. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2010