Gunter Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. William Williams Gunter, known to everyone as Billie, came to Limestone County as a boy, arriving with his parents and half brothers after the Civil War. He'd grow roots here, deep ones.

He married Laura Eudemia Williams, and together, Billie and Laura built something that takes a minute to fully take in: thirteen children. Thirteen. That's not a family, that's a congregation.

Born in 1861, Billie would live until 1940. Laura, born in 1868, passed in 1937. Between those years, the Gunters wove themselves into the religious, business, and civic life of Limestone County in ways the community still remembers.

But every family chronicle has a page that's hard to turn, and this one came early. In 1893, an infant son, Evan Gunter, died. That loss marked the ground that would become the Gunter Cemetery.

The first burial on this site. From that sorrowful beginning, a family graveyard grew. Billie and Laura both rest here now, along with eight of their thirteen children, and several generations of the wider Gunter family besides.

And here's something worth noting, because the marker makes sure to note it. Also interred in this family graveyard are Jim B. Rankin and his wife, known affectionately as Grandmother Rankin, two people who worked for the Gunter family for twenty-five years.

The family saw fit to keep them close, even here. The Gunter Cemetery, as the marker puts it, serves as a chronicle of the pioneers of Limestone County. You could spend a long time walking those grounds, reading names, doing the quiet math of lives fully lived and grief quietly carried.

Some places hold a county's whole story in a few rows of stone. This is one of them.

What the marker says

William Williams "Billie" Gunter (1861-1940) came to Limestone County with his parents and half brothers after the Civil War. He and his wife Laura Eudemia Williams (1868-1937) had thirteen children. The first burial on this site took place when their infant son, Evan Gunter, died in 1893. This is the final resting place of several generations of the Gunter family, including Billie and Laura and eight of their children. The Gunter families were active in the religious, business and civic life of the area. Also interred in the family graveyard are Jim B. Rankin and his wife, "Grandmother" Rankin, who worked for the Gunter family for 25 years. The Gunter Cemetery serves as a chronicle of the pioneers of Limestone County. (2000)