Feagin Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Feagin Cemetery, out there in Polk County. Pull over if you need to, because this one's got layers. It starts with a journey.

Aaron Feagin, born in 1811, and his wife Sarah, born in 1824, she was a Merrill before she married, packed up their lives in Alabama and came to the Bear Creek community in 1857. Now, when I say they came prepared, I mean it. The Feagins paid ten thousand dollars in gold for two thousand, eight hundred and twenty acres of land.

Gold. Not a promissory note, not a handshake, not a prayer and a good harvest. Gold.

And on that land they built a house, and they built a store, because the Feagins were the kind of people who showed up and got to work. They had a daughter, Susannah, and Susannah married a man named John A. Handley.

The two of them operated a store over in nearby Moscow. John Handley also served in the Civil War, which is worth a moment of quiet before we move on. Aaron Feagin died in 1863.

Sarah carried on, a widow with younger children still needing raising. In 1868, Susannah and John Handley made the decision to move the whole Handley family from Moscow to Bear Creek, to be beside her and help with those children. That is the kind of thing that doesn't get forgotten.

John Handley had been postmaster over in Moscow, and in 1891 he applied for a Bear Creek Post Office. The application went through, and when it did, the town was renamed. Named for his youngest daughter.

Her name was Hortense. That's how a little girl's name got written onto the map of Texas, and it's still there today. Time kept moving.

In 1905, the Handleys deeded two acres of the original Feagin land, including the burial plots of Aaron and Sarah themselves, for a public cemetery. Then their son Jesse and his wife Ada, she was a Rice before she married, added another one and a half acres to expand the cemetery in 1926. What grew up on that ground is something worth reckoning with.

Veterans of several major American and international conflicts are buried there. Early families of Bear Creek and Hortense rest there too, generation after generation. A count done in 1997 found more than two hundred marked graves.

But the marker is honest about this: many more graves are unmarked, and most of those unmarked ones are likely the graves of infants. There are five graves that the marker names specifically. Five graves belonging to five children of Jessie E.

Parrish. Five. The marker calls them witnesses to the difficulties of pioneer life, and that's the right word.

Witness. They don't let you look away. Feagin Cemetery continues to serve the Hortense community today.

What started as ten thousand dollars in gold and a family willing to put down roots became the resting place of a whole community's history. Some stories end. This one just keeps going.

What the marker says

Aaron (1811-1863) and Sarah (Merrill) (1824-1869) Feagin came from Alabama to the Bear Creek community in 1857. The Feagins paid $10,000 in gold for 2,820 acres of land and built a house and store. Their daughter Susannah and her husband John A. Handley operated a store in nearby Moscow; John Handley served in the Civil War. In 1868 the Handley family moved to Bear Creek to help the widowed Sarah raise the younger Feagin Children. John A. Handley, who had been postmaster in Moscow, applied for a Bear Creek Post Office in 1891 and the town was renamed for his youngest daughter, Hortense. In 1905 the Handleys deeded two acres of the Feagin land, including the burial plots of Aaron and Sarah, for a public cemetery. Their son Jesse and his wife Ada (Rice) Handley added 1.5 more acres to expand the cemetery in 1926. Veterans of several major American and international conflicts are interred here, as are many early Bear Creek and Hortense families. A 1997 count revealed more than 200 marked graves in Feagin Cemetery. Many more are unmarked; most of these are likely to be those of infants. Five graves, those of the five children of Jessie E. Parrish, bear witness to the difficulties of pioneer life. Feagin Cemetery continues to serve the Hortense community. (1998)