Gary Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Gary Cemetery, out in Bosque County. Now, every good Texas story starts with somebody deciding to go west. William and Rutha Gary were South Carolina natives, and at some point they packed up their family and did exactly that.

By 1852, they had settled in this area, which at the time was still part of McLennan County. Wide open country, new beginnings, the whole promise of it. Then 1854 rolls around, and Bosque County is formed, freshly drawn on the map.

And William Gary, he must have earned some standing among his neighbors, because he was chosen as one of just five county commissioners. Five commissioners for a brand new county. And when that first county election was held, five Gary family members were among the voters.

Five commissioners, five voters from the same family. That is a family that had put down roots. But here's where the story turns quiet.

William Gary died in 1855, just a year after that county was formed. Rutha followed him in 1868. Their graves, side by side in this ground, became the beginning of something neither of them planned.

A cemetery. It grew slowly, the marker tells us, over the next sixty years. About thirty-five graves are marked today.

Another twenty-five stones are out there too, but they carry no inscription, no name, no date. Just silent markers for people we can no longer name. The last burial in this cemetery occurred in 1932.

So what started as two graves, a husband and a wife from South Carolina who came west and helped build a county, grew into a community's resting place. That's the quiet kind of legacy that doesn't announce itself. It just stays.

What the marker says

South Carolina natives William and Rutha Gary migrated west with their family, and by 1852 settled in this area, then part of McLennan County. In 1854, when Bosque County was formed, William Gary was chosen as one of five county commissioners. Five Gary family members were among the voters in the first county election. William Gary died in 1855, followed by Rutha in 1868. Their graves formed the nucleus of this cemetery that grew slowly over the next sixty years. About 35 graves are marked; 25 more stones are not inscribed. The last burial occurred in 1932. (1996)