English Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about English Cemetery, out there in Red River County. Pull over if you can, because this one reaches back a long way. It starts in 1852, with two men and a decision.

Oliver English and his uncle, Simeon English, gathered three families and thirty slaves and made the long move from Missouri down into Texas, bound for plantation country. They crossed the Red River at a place known then as the mill creek crossing, followed the Mill Creek Road, and eventually came to the farm of a man named Rev. William Duke.

That stretch of land is where they put down roots. What they opened was a two-thousand-acre plantation. Two thousand acres.

Oliver English built a home and a store right at the heart of what would become his namesake community. The first church came along soon after an 1859 deed to the land, and the English Store, well, it grew into a trading center for a wide area. People were crossing the Red River just to buy there.

That store kept its doors open, year after year, generation after generation, right up until it burned in 1983. Before it did, it was one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the county. Some things earn their reputation slowly and lose it in a single night.

Now the English Cemetery sits at the quiet center of all that history. It goes by another name too, Williams Chapel Cemetery, and it is the final resting place for generations of citizens from that community. Military veterans buried there span from the Civil War all the way through the Vietnam War.

That is a long arc of service and sacrifice laid into Red River County soil. The earliest unmarked burial is believed to be that of John Aikin, born circa 1756, died before 1849. The earliest identifiable grave belongs to Margaret Alvey Dunagan, one of the charter members of the community church, who died in 1865.

Oliver English himself is buried there, along with Rev. T. W.

Anderson and his wife, Columbia, and A. J. Williams.

Early settlers, all of them, resting now in the ground they helped shape. Walk the cemetery and you will read the landscape like a book. Graves are oriented east and west.

The stones are predominantly granite, limestone, and marble, with a few surviving markers still in wood, holding on against time. The detailing on some tombstones reflects fraternal orders, Woodmen of the World and Masonic orders both represented among the dead. And the place is not forgotten.

The English Cemetery Society organizes an annual homecoming to raise funds and awareness for the maintenance of this burial ground. Generation after generation, somebody keeps showing up. That, more than the granite or the marble, might be the most durable thing about this place.

What the marker says

In 1852, Oliver English, and his uncle, Simeon English, brought three families and 30 slaves from Missouri to establish plantations in the area. They crossed the Red River at what was then known as the mill creek crossing and travelled the Mill Creek Road until they came to the farm of Rev. William Duke. In this area they opened a 2,000-acre plantation, and Oliver English built a home and store at the heart of his namesake community. The first church was built soon after an 1859 deed to the land. The English Store became a trading center for a wide area with many people crossing the Red River to buy there. Before it burned in 1983, it was one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the county. The English Cemetery, also known as Williams Chapel Cemetery, is the final resting place for generations of citizens, including military veterans from the Civil War through the Vietnam War. The earliest unmarked burial is believed to be that of John Aikin, who was born circa 1756 and died before 1849. The earliest identifiable grave is that of Margaret Alvey Dunagan, one of the charter members of the community church, who died in 1865. Oliver English, Rev. T. W. Anderson and his wife, Columbia, and A. J. Williams, all early settlers of the English community, are also buried here. The general landscape of English Cemetery is traditional in nature. Graves are oriented east and west, and gravestones are predominantly granite, limestone and marble, with a few surviving markers in wood. Tombstone detailing reflects fraternal orders including woodmen of the world and masonic orders. The English Cemetery society organizes an annual homecoming to raise funds and awareness for the maintenance of this historic burial ground.