Flower Mound Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Now, 1854 is a year worth remembering, because that's when Matthew and Isabella Doyle Douglass Donald rolled into Denton County, Texas. Matthew was a successful farmer, and successful farmers, they tend to think ahead.

So that very same year, not a decade later, not after he'd settled in and gotten comfortable, that same year, Matthew set aside ten acres. Ten acres for a cemetery, a campground, and the Flower Mound Presbyterian Church. The man hadn't even unpacked good, and he was already planning for eternity.

He served as the first Pastor of that church, and in 1879, twenty-five years after he'd first carved out that ground, he formally deeded the land over to the church. Put it in writing. Made it official.

That's the kind of conviction that outlasts a man. And the cemetery, well, it was used soon after it was established. That first burial, reportedly a girl who died at a church camp meeting, sets a somber tone right from the start.

You don't get much quieter than that. The earliest marked burial belongs to Ola Hall, who died in 1873. And the earliest birth date on any marker out there?

That belongs to Anderson Spinks, born in 1808. Think about that: a man born before Texas was even a republic, eventually laid to rest in this very ground. The Donald plot holds the founder himself, Matthew, alongside his brother Robert Henderson Donald, a man who served as both church deacon and state legislator.

That's a family that showed up in more ways than one. Early Flower Mound families staked their claims in these grounds too: the Simmons, the Bakers, the Crawfords, plots that tell the story of a community takin' shape, row by row. Then comes 1950, and here's where the ground itself had to move.

The building of Lake Grapevine meant the Dyer Family Cemetery had to be relocated, picked up and brought to Flower Mound. When the water rises, the dead come with you. That's loyalty of a different kind.

To this day, the Flower Mound Cemetery Association and the church hold an annual decoration day and worship service. They haven't forgotten. And that burial ground, ten acres set aside by one forward-thinkin' farmer in 1854, remains a link to every generation of residents who contributed to Flower Mound's history.

Some places, the deeper you dig, the more story you find.

What the marker says

Matthew and Isabella Doyle (Douglass) Donald arrived in Denton County, Texas in 1854. That year, Matthew, a successful farmer, set aside 10 acres for a cemetery, campground and the Flower Mound Presbyterian Church. He served as the first Pastor of the church, to which he formally deeded the land in 1879. The cemetery was used soon after it was established. The first burial was reportedly that of a girl who died at a church camp meeting. The earliest marked burial is that of Ola Hall (d. 1873). The earliest birth date on a marker is that of Anderson Spinks (b. 1808). Early Flower Mound families initially had plots. The Donald plot includes burials of the cemetery's founder and his brother, Robert Henderson Donald, who served as church deacon and state legislator. Other families include the Simmons, Bakers and Crawfords. In 1950, the Dyer Family Cemetery was relocated to Flower Mound, due to the building of Lake Grapevine. The Flower Mound Cemetery Association, along with the church, holds an annual decoration day and worship service. The burial ground remains a link to the generations of residents who contributed to Flower Mound's rich history. Historic Texas cemetery - 2003