Fentress Community Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna pass it right along to you. Out here in Caldwell County, near the community of Fentress, there's a patch of ground that's been holding memory a lot longer than most folks realize. This is the story of the Fentress Community Cemetery, and it starts with a deed and goes back even further than that.

Two couples, French and Della Tiller and F. W. and Ethel Mercer, deeded the land for this public burial ground to the Fentress International Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge number 598, in March of 1915. That's the official beginning, on paper anyway.

But the ground itself had other ideas. Seven known graves already existed before that deed was ever signed. Seven.

The earliest of them going back to 1888. So by the time the Tillers and Mercers put pen to paper, this place had already been a cemetery for the better part of three decades. Five of those seven early graves belong to young children, children of the Williamson and Gillis families.

Now, two of the Gillis markers you'll find standing there are memorials only. The actual graves are somewhere across the San Marcos River, at a location nobody knows anymore. Markers without graves, and graves without markers.

That river kept its secret. The cemetery passed through careful hands over the years. Care transferred to the Luling I.O.O.F.

Lodge in 1947, then to the Fentress Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in 1952, and since 1993, the Fentress Community Cemetery Association has kept watch. That's a long chain of people deciding this ground matters. And it does.

The marker calls it a significant chronicle of this rural Caldwell County settlement, and that's exactly right. Some chronicles are written in books. This one is written in the earth, going all the way back to 1888, waiting for someone to stop and read it.

What the marker says

FENTRESS COMMUNITY CEMETERY FRENCH AND DELLA TILLER AND F. W. AND ETHEL MERCER DEEDED LAND FOR THIS PUBLIC BURIAL GROUND TO THE FENTRESS INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS (I.O.O.F.) LODGE #598 IN MARCH 1915. SEVEN KNOWN GRAVES PREDATE THE DEED, FROM AS EARLY AS 1888. FIVE OF THEM ARE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN OF THE WILLIAMSON AND GILLIS FAMILIES. THE TWO GILLIS GRAVE MARKERS ARE MEMORIALS, AS THEIR GRAVES ARE AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION ACROSS THE SAN MARCOS RIVER. CARE OF THE CEMETERY TRANSFERRED TO THE LULING I.O.O.F. LODGE IN 1947, FENTRESS METHODIST AND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES IN 1952, AND THE FENTRESS COMMUNITY CEMETERY ASSOCIATION SINCE 1993. THE FENTRESS COMMUNITY CEMETERY IS A SIGNIFICANT CHRONICLE OF THIS RURAL CALDWELL COUNTY SETTLEMENT. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2001