DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for Greathouse Cemetery in Bell County is what I'm drawing from here, and it's a story worth drawing slow. Now, if you want to understand a place, sometimes you have to start with the man who set the ground aside. The Reverend Early Greathouse was born in 1810, and by 1846 he'd been ordained to the ministry — in Georgia.
That's where his story begins, but it is not where it ends. He moved to Alabama in 1852, and there he stepped into public life in a serious way, serving in the state legislature and then in not one but two Constitutional Conventions — 1865 and 1867. The man knew how to plant himself somewhere and leave a mark.
But then came 1870, and Greathouse packed up his family and arrived in Texas. He bought land south of where Temple sits today. And he did not sit idle.
He built the first cotton gin in the area. He organized the Knob Creek Baptist Church. He organized the Mt.
Vernon Baptist Church. And somewhere in all of that — probably around 1871 — he set aside a tract of land for a cemetery. Probably 1871.
That word probably is doing a lot of work on that marker, and I respect a historian who admits it. Now, the Reverend and his wife, the former Susan Talley, had ten children between them. Ten.
So when this ground was first broken for burials, it was family ground. But cemeteries have a way of opening up. Community has a way of pressing in.
And before long, others were being laid to rest here too. The oldest marked grave belongs to Mattie Lee Clopton, born 1863, died 1875. She was twelve years old.
And she was the granddaughter of Early Greathouse himself. There is no theatrical way to say that. A grandfather outlives his granddaughter by a decade, and her stone is the oldest one still standing to be read.
Also buried in this ground are several former slaves who came to Texas with the Greathouse family. That is what the marker says, and it says it plainly, and it deserves to be said plainly. They are here.
They are part of this ground. And then consider who else rests in Greathouse Cemetery: veterans of the Civil War, veterans of both world wars. And — and here is where the ground gets genuinely deep — one survivor of the Battle of San Jacinto.
One person who was there, at that battle, and then lived long enough to end up in Bell County, Texas, under the same dirt as the Reverend's grandchildren. The Reverend Early Greathouse died in 1885. His wife Susan had stood beside him through Georgia, Alabama, and Texas.
In 1884 — just a year before he died — the Reverend and Mrs. Greathouse deeded a large tract of land to a daughter. That daughter, in turn, sold one acre to the trustees of the Greathouse Cemetery Association of Bell County in 1908.
One acre. Signed over, made official, held in trust. The man who was ordained in 1846 set aside ground that was still being organized and protected more than sixty years later.
That is not a coincidence. That is a man who understood that land outlasts the living — and planned accordingly.
What the marker says
The Rev. Early Greathouse (1810-1885) was ordained to the ministry in Georgia in 1846. He moved to Alabama in 1852, where he served in the state legislature and the Constitutional Conventions of 1865 and 1867. In 1870 Greathouse and his family arrived in Texas and bought land south of the present site of Temple. He built the first cotton gin in the area, and soon organized both the Knob Creek and Mt. Vernon Baptist Churches. He also set aside a tract of land to be used for a cemetery, probably in 1871. Though originally used as a family burial ground, other people of the community were later interred here. The oldest marked grave is that of Mattie Lee Clopton (1863-1875), granddaughter of Early Greathouse. Also buried here are several former slaves who came to Texas with the Greathouse family, and veterans of the Civil War and both world wars, as well as one survivor of the Battle of San Jacinto. The Rev. Early Greathouse and his wife, the former Susan Talley, were the parents of ten children. In 1884 the Rev. and Mrs. Greathouse deeded a large tract of land to a daughter, who in turn sold one acre to the trustees of the Greathouse Cemetery Association of Bell County in 1908. (1986)