DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Frankford Cemetery has to say — and there's more layered into this ground than you might expect. Now, if you're rolling through this part of Collin County, you're passing over land that used to be a genuine crossroads. In the early days of settlement, this area served as a stop for cattle drives and for travelers on the Preston Road.
That's not a small thing — cattle drives and road traffic meant this place had a pulse, a reason to exist. And out of that, a community called Frankford took root nearby, enough of a community to support its own post office, which kept the mail moving until the early nineteen hundreds. But communities leave their deepest marks in their cemeteries, and this one goes back to 1862.
That's when area pioneer Eliga M. Yaeger was interred here — the earliest known burial, though the earliest marked grave belongs to someone else entirely. That would be John T.
Coit. Born in 1829, died in 1872. A lawyer by trade, he'd come all the way from South Carolina to settle in this part of Texas.
And before that, during the Civil War, he raised a regiment in the Dallas area and served as a colonel. Now here's the detail that'll stay with you — Coit wasn't always here. He was originally buried on a bluff of the Trinity River.
Somebody, at some point, saw to it that he was reinterred at this site. He traveled in death the way he had in life. Then there's Margaret McKamy, born in 1786, who made it to 1873 — eighty-seven years on this earth, and she spent her later ones in Texas, having come here with her son William C.
McKamy, who went on to become a prominent area landowner. She rests here too. And the cemetery holds two more names worth slowing down for, because between them they tell the story of a town.
Sidney Noell — founder of the early town of Noell Junction, which you might know today as Addison, sitting about a mile to the southwest. And Addison Robertson, for whom that town was later named. Both men, buried in the same ground.
The founder and the namesake, side by side in the quiet. Since the 1870s, this cemetery has been tied to the White Rock Masonic Lodge No. 234, which got its start up at Walnut Grove back in 1858. The lodge built a hall right here in 1872, and that building pulled triple duty — lodge hall, church, and school all at once, the way frontier institutions tended to do when there weren't enough buildings to go around.
Lodge members still serve on the Cemetery Association Board today. Some places just keep showing up in the story. This is one of them.
What the marker says
In the early days of settlement, this area served as a stop for cattle drives and for travelers on the Preston Road. Later the community of Frankford, the site of a post office until the early 1900s, was located nearby. This community cemetery was used as early as 1862, when area pioneer Eliga M. Yaeger was interred here. The earliest marked grave is that of John T. Coit (1829-1872), a lawyer who moved here from South Carolina. During the Civil War he raised a regiment in the Dallas area and served as a colonel. Originally buried on a bluff of the Trinity River, he was later reinterred at this site. Another early burial was that of Margaret McKamy (1786-1873), who came to Texas with her son William C. McKamy, later a prominent area landowner. Also buried here are Sidney Noell, founder of the early town of Noell Junction, now Addison (1 mile southwest), and Addison Robertson, for whom it was later named. Since the 1870s the cemetery has been associated with the White Rock Masonic Lodge No. 234, started at Walnut Grove in 1858. A lodge hall, built here in 1872, also served as a church and school. Lodge members serve on the Cemetery Association Board. (1981) Historic Texas Cemetery medallion added 2013.