DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. William A. and Sarah Graham — she was born a Hall, out of North Carolina — packed up their family and made the long push to Texas, settling in this part of Hill County in 1856. They found a community here, put down roots, and attended Old Salem Methodist Church over at Zollicoffer's mill, a place that would later go by the name Irene.
Now, family history holds something the ground itself has been keeping quiet: slaves and former slaves were buried in and around this very site. The soil carries that weight, even where the stones have gone silent or never stood at all. The earliest marked grave belongs to Mary Graham — six years old, William and Sarah's granddaughter — laid to rest here in 1866.
Six years old. Sometimes the story starts with the youngest voice. Then comes Abe Mason.
He rode in from Tennessee in 1869, a Confederate veteran who had taken a wound at the Battle of Shiloh and apparently decided Hill County was as good a place as any to put that behind him. He married the Grahams' daughter Margaret Elizabeth in 1870 — so the two families, the North Carolina Grahams and the Tennessee Mason, became one. And Abe Mason worked.
By the time he died in 1906, he owned eleven hundred acres, this cemetery site included, and stood among the largest landowners in all of Hill County. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, twenty-two graves rest here. And the land — all of it — remains the property of Graham-Mason descendants.
Same family. Same ground. From a six-year-old girl in 1866 to eleven hundred acres and counting.
That's a long story, and the marker's just the short version.
What the marker says
William A. and Sarah (Hall) Graham of North Carolina migrated to Texas with their family, settling in this area in 1856. The Grahams attended Old Salem Methodist church in Zollicoffer's mill (later Irene). According to family history, slaves and former slaves were buried in and around this site, but the earliest marked grave is that of William and Sarah's granddaughter, six-year-old Mary Graham, buried in 1866. Abe Mason of Tennessee, a Confederate veteran wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, moved to Hill County in 1869. He married the Grahams' daughter Margaret Elizabeth in 1870. When he died in 1906, Mason owned 1100 acres including this site and was among the largest landowners in Hill County. Containing 22 graves at the dawn of the 21st century, the cemetery remains the property of Graham-Mason descendants. (2000)