Fairview Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Out in rural Brown County, there's a patch of ground that's been holding the stories of this land for well over a hundred years. They call it Fairview Cemetery, and the marker out front has a lot to say if you slow down long enough to listen.

Two men planted the seed of this place. James Jackson Martin, born in 1847, and Daniel Hulse, born in 1822, each donated land for the cemetery after settling in the area prior to 1878. That's two neighbors, on two separate pieces of ground, agreeing that this community was going to need a place to lay its people down.

A. A. Martin and F.

B. Smiley came along later and added to those donations, enlarging what was already taking shape as something permanent. Now, the first person buried here was Mrs.

M. C. Cain, who died in April of 1878.

The ground was barely given over to its purpose when, four months later, a two-year-old boy named James William Martin, son of J. J. Martin himself, was interred here.

On land his own father had donated. You sit with that a moment. The man who gave the ground to the community was among the first to give something far more precious to it.

Out on the west side of the cemetery, sometime in the 1870s, a combination school and church building went up. Community life and eternal rest, side by side. That structure was eventually replaced by another one built on the east side of the property, and both the Fairview Baptist Church and the Methodist Church held services there.

More than five hundred graves now rest inside Fairview Cemetery. Area pioneers. Veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Generations of Brown County families, layered into that ground like the rings of an old post oak. Then in 1978, exactly one hundred years after Mrs. Cain became the first soul buried there, the community organized a cemetery association to keep the place maintained.

A hundred years on, and folks still felt the pull of it. The Fairview Cemetery stands, the marker says, as a reminder of the area's early heritage. And standing out there in rural Brown County, looking out over five hundred graves and counting, that feels like about the truest thing you could say about a place.

What the marker says

This community cemetery has served the people of rural Brown County for more than a century. James Jackson Martin (1847-1898) and Daniel Hulse (1822-1880) each donated land for the cemetery after settling in this area prior to 1878. Later donations by A. A. Martin and F. B. Smiley enlarged the cemetery. The first person buried here was Mrs. M. C. Cain, who died in April 1878. Four months later James William Martin, two-year-old son of J. J. Martin, died and was interred here on land donated by his father. A combination school and church building was built on the west side of the cemetery in the 1870s, and later was replaced by another structure on the east side of the property. Both the Fairview Baptist Church and the Methodist Church met here. Among the more than five hundred graves in the Fairview Cemetery are those of many area pioneers. Also interred here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In 1978, one hundred years after the first burial, a cemetery association was organized to maintain the historic graveyard. The Fairview Cemetery stands as a reminder of the area's early heritage. (1991)