Ewing Chapel Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Out in the quiet rural stretches of southern Harrison County, there's a piece of ground that has been holding the stories of this land since before the Civil War even had a name to call itself. The place is the Ewing Chapel Cemetery, and if you slow down long enough to listen, it will do the talking.

The Ewing Chapel Cumberland Presbyterian Church officially organized in January of 1855, and that organizing is when the cemetery itself was established. But here's the thing the ground already knew. The earliest confirmed burial in that cemetery reaches back to July of 1853, before the church was even official, with more unmarked burials beside the church site possibly belonging to members of the Collier, Craig, or Wilder families.

The earth was receiving people before the paperwork caught up. Among the other early settlers resting here, you'll find members of the McClaran, Ellis, Hall, Stauts, and McCarty families, names that carried weight in this part of Harrison County when the county itself was still findin its footing. At least fourteen men buried in this ground assembled for volunteer units during the Civil War, and their descendants followed them here across the generations.

The cemetery also holds two prominent early medical doctors, James M. Key and Dr. George Dixon Mahon.

And it is the final resting place of the area's first school teachers, Thomas Hatley Craig and Beatrice Ellis Lloyd. Businessmen, local leaders, pioneers of every stripe, they're all here. Now, by 1900, something had shifted.

The congregation had largely moved toward urban areas, and the Ewing Chapel building itself was being utilized as a funeral chapel for services rather than a house of weekly worship. You might think a place like that would quietly fade. But it didn't.

Between the 1870s and the 1940s, annual reunion days brought descendants back to this ground to honor the people who came before them. That's a span of decades held together by memory and a willingness to make the trip. A cemetery association, created in 1991, stepped in to assist with maintaining the cemetery until the early twenty-first century.

Today, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Marshall tends to this ground. All those early settlers, those soldiers, those doctors and teachers and pioneers, they found their way here. And here, it turns out, is where they stayed.

What the marker says

Located in a quiet, rural area of southern Harrison County, the Ewing Chapel Cemetery is the final resting place for many early settlers of the mid-19th century. The cemetery was established when the Ewing Chapel Cumberland Presbyterian Church officially organized in January 1855. Despite the date of the deed, the earliest confirmed burial in the cemetery is from July 1853 with more unmarked burials beside the church site, possibly belonging to members of the Collier, Craig or Wilder families. Other early settlers represented among the burials are members of the McClaran, Ellis, Hall, Stauts and McCarty families. Burials also include at least fourteen men who assembled for volunteer units during the Civil War and their descendants. Also buried here are prominent early medical doctors: James M. Key and Dr. George Dixon Mahon. The cemetery is also the final resting place for the area's first school teachers, Thomas Hatley Craig and Beatrice Ellis Lloyd, and many other early pioneers, businessmen and local leaders. By 1900, the Ewing Chapel building was utilized as a funeral chapel for services as most of the congregation moved to urban areas. However, annual reunion days held at the cemetery between the 1870s and the 1940s brought descendants back to honor their ancestors. A cemetery association, created in 1991, assisted in maintaining the cemetery until the early 21st century. It is now maintained by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Marshall. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2016