DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Grandview Cemetery and the original Grand View town site in Johnson County. Now, every town's got an origin story, and this one starts with a man standing on a patch of Texas prairie, looking out at the lay of the land, and saying exactly what was on his mind. John Whitmire — son-in-law of early settler F.
L. Kirtley — is credited with naming this town in 1854 with five simple words: 'What a Grand View.' And just like that, the place had a name. Two years later, in 1856, F.
L. Kirtley put his money where that view was, donating two and a half acres for a Baptist church and cemetery. That same year, a man named James F.
Scurlock came along with bigger plans — he purchased about fourteen hundred acres of land surrounding that cemetery, intending to lay out a full town plat. Grand View was going to be something. The oldest marked burial in that cemetery tells you just how quickly life moved — and ended — on the frontier.
James F. and Rebecca Criner Scurlock's child, James C., was born on June 4th, 1857, and died that same day. That little stone is the earliest marked grave in the ground. But the town kept growing.
By 1860, Grand View had three general stores, a blacksmith shop, and a church building. And in 1861, Lodge No. 266 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons was chartered — the first Masonic lodge in all of Johnson County. Then the Civil War came, and James Scurlock did not come back from it.
After his death, his family sold the town site to a man named F. M. Sansom.
Under new ownership, Grand View kept on — more stores, a saloon, more churches. The community was finding its stride. But there's one grave in that cemetery that the marker pulls aside from all the rest, and speaks about in a different tone entirely.
One evening in the summer of 1867, two young travelers came to Grand View. By the next morning, the young woman was found murdered. No sign of her companion anywhere.
The people of Grand View did what decent people do — they buried her in a handmade coffin and carved a name on her tombstone. That name was Annie. It came from a single embroidered handkerchief she carried.
Nobody knew her real name. Nobody ever came looking for her. Just Annie, buried in Johnson County ground by strangers who showed her more kindness at the end than whoever was with her that night.
The cemetery also holds the African American section of Grand View's history — including the unmarked graves of Scott and Elmira Matlock, counted among the community's earliest settlers. Unmarked, but not forgotten, because that marker makes a point of saying so. Now, towns in Texas have a way of chasing the railroad, and Grand View was no different.
The railroad came through about a mile southeast of town in 1881. By 1883, the main section of Grand View had picked itself up and moved to meet it. The old town site was left behind — and slowly, quietly, the cemetery took over every last acre of it.
The name even changed shape over time, dropping the space between the two words: Grandview, one word now. What started as a Baptist church lot and a borrowed phrase is today a chronicle of the pioneers of Johnson County — the settlers, the lodge members, the children born and lost the same morning, and one young woman known only as Annie, buried under a name stitched in thread by hands that never knew her. That's Grand View.
That's Grandview. Whichever way you spell it, it's all still there.
What the marker says
John Whitmire, the son-in-law of early settler F. L. Kirtley, is credited with naming this town in 1854 by saying, "What a Grand View!" Kirtley donated 2.5 acres for a Baptist church and cemetery in 1856. Intending to lay out a town plat, James F. Scurlock purchased about 1400 acres of land surrounding the cemetery the same year. The oldest marked burial here is that of James F. and Rebecca Criner Scurlock's child, James C., who was born and died on June 4, 1857. By 1860 Grand View included three general stores, a blacksmith shop, a church building and Lodge No. 266, A.F & A.M., chartered in 1861 as the first Masonic lodge in Johnson County. After James Scurlock's death during the Civil War, his family sold the town site to F. M. Sansom. Several stores, a saloon, and more churches were established as the community grew. Of the many graves in the cemetery, one has taken on the status of local legend. A pair of young travelers came to Grand View one evening in summer 1867. The young woman was found murdered the next morning with no sign of her companion. The people of the community buried her in a handmade coffin and marked her tombstone "Annie," the name on an embroidered handkerchief she carried. The African American section of the cemetery contains the graves of many residents, including the unmarked graves of Scott and Elmira Matlock. They were among Grand View's earliest settlers. The railroad came through about a mile southeast of the town in 1881, and by 1883 the main section of Grand View had moved to it. The cemetery gradually took over the entire old town site. The cemetery continued to serve the community, now known by the single word "Grandview." The cemetery and the original town site remain as a chronicle of the pioneers of Johnson County. (1999)