DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Out here in Tarrant County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding the stories of a community since before most of Texas knew this corner of the map. This is Handley Cemetery — and to understand what it is, you've got to understand what it was.
When the Texas and Pacific Railroad laid a line through this area in 1876, a community grew up right behind it. That community became Handley, and the people who built it needed somewhere to rest their dead. So this burial ground came to be, serving those pioneer settlers as the town found its footing.
The earliest marked grave belongs to Jane E. Thomas, born in 1832, gone by 1878. That's the oldest name we can still read out here, and it anchors the whole place in time.
Then in 1882, a church building went up on adjacent land — right next door — and it stood there for forty-eight years. Forty-eight years of Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, right alongside the quiet of the dead. Now here's the part that carries some weight.
Among those buried here was Major James M. Handley — the man the town was named for — a Civil War veteran who died in 1906. He and several other early residents were later reinterred at the nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
So the man the town honors isn't even resting here anymore. But this ground still holds its place in the story. The last burial was in 1967 — nearly a century after Jane E.
Thomas became the first. A cemetery that outlasted its church, its most famous resident, and the pioneer era that made it necessary. That's Handley Cemetery.
Still here. Still keeping its quiet.
What the marker says
This burial ground originally served the pioneer settlers of the Handley Community, which developed here soon after the Texas and Pacific Railroad built a line to the area in 1876. The earliest marked grave is that of Jane E. Thomas (1832-1878). A church building, constructed on adjacent land in 1882, was located here for 48 years. Several early residents buried at this site, including Civil War veteran Maj. James M. Handley (d. 1906), for whom the town was named, were later reinterred in the nearby Rose Hill Cemetery. The last burial here was in 1967. (1981)