Gillum Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Gillum Cemetery in Burnet County tells it this way, and I'll do my best to honor it. Now, most family cemeteries in Texas start with someone old, someone who lived a long life and finally laid down their burden after seeing grandchildren and harvests and the slow turning of seasons. Gillum Cemetery didn't start that way.

Abslom Barton Gillum was born in 1836, and he and his wife Hannah Emmaline came up from Alabama and arrived in Texas in 1872. By 1880, A.B. Gillum had bought land right at the spot where that cemetery stands today.

He was a man who had done things. He served in the Civil War. He was postmaster of Oakalla.

He was recognized as a Master Mason. He owned a cotton gin. A man of standing, a man of industry, a man who had weathered more than most.

But life out on the Texas frontier had its own accounting to keep. The first person buried in Gillum Cemetery was not a veteran, not a neighbor, not an elder of the community. It was a boy.

William Peter Gillum, called Willie by his family, born in 1878, son of A.B. and Hannah. Willie was four years old when he was laid in that ground in 1882. Four years old.

And that is how this cemetery began. Not with ceremony, not with planning, but with a father who had survived a war and built a life, now burying his little boy. In the years that followed, others joined him there.

Woodmen of the World. Veterans spanning from the Civil War all the way to the present day. Generation after generation finding their rest on that same piece of Burnet County land.

In 1990, an additional two and a half acres was added to the cemetery, because the community it held had kept on growing, kept on living, and yes, kept on dying, as communities do. Abslom Barton Gillum himself lived until 1923. He saw a lot of Texas.

He outlasted a great deal. Today the Gillum Cemetery Association maintains that historic ground, and the marker calls it what it is: a reminder of the area's pioneer ancestors. But I'd say it's something more particular than that.

It's a reminder that the very first thing Abslom Gillum committed to that soil was his four-year-old son. Everything that cemetery became, it became after Willie. That's the foundation it was built on.

And some things, once you know them, you don't quite forget.

What the marker says

ABSLOM BARTON GILLUM (1836-1923) AND HIS WIFE, HANNAH EMMALINE, ARRIVED IN TEXAS FROM ALABAMA IN 1872. IN 1880, GILLUM BOUGHT LAND AT THE PRESENT SITE OF THE CEMETERY. A.B. GILLUM SERVED IN THE CIVIL WAR, WAS POSTMASTER OF OAKALLA, WAS RECOGNIZED AS A MASTER MASON AND OWNED A COTTON GIN. THE FIRST PERSON BURIED IN THE CEMETERY IS FOUR-YEAR-OLD WILLIAM "WILLIE" PETER GILLUM (1878-1882), THE SON OF A.B. AND HANNAH. OTHER BURIALS INCLUDE WOODMEN OF THE WORLD AND VETERANS FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE PRESENT. AN ADDITIONAL 2.5 ACRES WAS ADDED TO THE CEMETERY IN 1990. THE GILLUM CEMETERY ASSOCIATION MAINTAINS THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY, A REMINDER OF THE AREA'S PIONEER ANCESTORS. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2010