Glendale Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Out on the edge of what used to be Harrisburg, now swallowed up by Houston, there's a piece of ground that's been holding stories since before most of Texas knew it was Texas. They call it Glendale Cemetery.

It started, as so many things in this part of the world do, with a family. The family of John R. Harris, the founder of Harrisburg himself.

His people set aside a private plot, quiet and modest, the way families do when they know the land and mean to stay on it. And then, on July 23, 1839, someone had to be the first. That someone was Judge John Birdsall, a cousin of Mrs.

Harris, and a man who had served as an ex-attorney general of Texas. A judge, a lawyer, a man of standing, and the first soul laid to rest in that ground. There's something about that, being first, that tends to echo.

From that private family plot, a cemetery grew up around him. Grew without management, without legal standing, just grew the way things do when people need a place and there isn't one yet. Texas heroes and pioneers, the marker calls them, and it doesn't elaborate, which somehow makes it heavier.

For decades that ground held its people without anyone holding the ground in return. Then, in 1897, local ladies stepped in. They formed the Glen Dale Cemetery Company and kept those grounds in order for years.

Years. Then came a period of neglect, the marker doesn't flinch from saying so, and the place fell into quiet disrepair the way forgotten things do. But in 1952, a group began restoration.

Someone looked at that ground and decided the people in it were worth the trouble. Today the Glendale Cemetery Association, Inc. manages the property and provides perpetual care. Perpetual care.

That's a phrase that carries some weight when you're standing over a grave that's been there since 1839.

What the marker says

Burial place, Texas heroes and pioneers. Began as private plot of family of John R. Harris, founder of Harrisburg (now part of Houston). First burial, on July 23, 1839, was of Mrs. Harris' cousin, Judge John Birdsall, an ex-attorney general of texas. A cemetery developed without management or legal status. In 1897, local ladies formed Glen Dale Cemetery Company and kept grounds in order for years. After a period of neglect, a group began restoration in 1952. Glendale Cemetery Association, Inc., now manages the property and provides perpetual care.