Harrington, Cassady and Clark Cemeteries

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, out in Denton County, there's a stretch of 1.77 acres off Lloyd Road where three cemeteries share the same ground. Three separate, historically African American cemeteries, Harrington, Cassady, and Clark, all standing together, all carrying their own history.

And the story of how they came to share that ground is the kind of thing that takes a minute to settle in. The Harrington Cemetery was there first. The land originally belonged to the Harrington family, and the only African American owner of that land was a man named E.

L. Lugrand. His brother's father-in-law, Nick Oldem, holds the distinction of being the first documented burial in Harrington Cemetery, laid to rest there in 1872.

Most of the graves in Harrington are marked with headstones of marble, granite, sandstone, and concrete. Solid stones. Lasting stones.

Now, Cassady and Clark, those cemeteries have a different kind of journey. They started somewhere else entirely. Jacob Cassady, who lived from 1808 to 1908, and yes, you heard that right, a hundred years on this earth, purchased the land for the Cassady Cemetery near a place called Garza in 1872.

He and his wife Melinda, born in 1821 and gone in 1904, are buried there in that family cemetery. Not far away, in 1876, Zack Rawlings and George Clark purchased the land for Clark Cemetery, just west of Garza. The sites of both original cemeteries were on land owned by African Americans.

And then, in 1953, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction of the Garza Little Elm Dam. That changed everything.

What the dam would create, what we now call Lewisville Lake, would swallow the ground where those cemeteries first stood. So the burials were relocated. Cassady and Clark Cemeteries were moved to their current location, right there adjoining the Harrington Cemetery.

Meggs and Son Funeral Home deeded both cemeteries to Denton County after relocating the burials. Now the three of them sit together, their reinterred boundaries marked with twelve-foot perimeters. An entrance gate sits on Lloyd Road at the northeast corner.

Lloyd, the early farming community around there, dates back to 1850 and was named for A. P. Lloyd, Denton County's first county clerk.

Fieldstone and funeral home steel-plates mark many of the Cassady and Clark graves, simpler markers, but markers all the same. The oldest legible one among them belongs to Nancie Rolling, dated 1879. Across all three burial grounds, there are approximately 170 graves.

And out beneath Lewisville Lake, somewhere under that water, is where it all began. The land is gone. But the people, they were brought to higher ground, and they're still there on 1.77 acres off Lloyd Road, together, remembered.

What the marker says

The Harrington, Cassady, and Clark Cemeteries are three separate historically African American cemeteries all located on 1.77 acres in Denton County. The land was originally owned by the Harrington family and is the site of the Harrington cemetery. Cassady and Clark Cemeteries were moved to their current location adjoining Harrington Cemetery in 1953 when the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction of the Garza Little Elm Dam. The reinterred cemeteries have twelve foot boundaries around the perimeters. An entrance gate is located on Lloyd Road at the northeast corner of the cemeteries. Lloyd, an early farming community, dates back to 1850 and was named for A. P. Lloyd, Denton County’s first county clerk. Most graves in Harrington are marked with headstones of marble, granite, sandstone and concrete. Fieldstone and funeral home steel-plates mark many Cassady and Clark graves. The three burial grounds have approximately 170 graves. The only African American owner of the Harrington land was E. L. Lugrand. His brother’s father-in-law, Nick Oldem, was the first documented burial in Harrington Cemetery (1872). The sites of the original Cassady and Clark cemeteries were on land owned by African Americans. Jacob Cassady (1808-1908) purchased the Cassady cemetery land near Garza in 1872. He and his wife, Melinda (1821-1904), are buried in this family cemetery. Zack Rawlings and George Clark purchased the Clark Cemetery land west of Garza in 1876. The oldest legible marker is Nancie Rolling (1879). Present-day Lewisville Lake covers the area where these cemeteries were first established. Meggs & Son Funeral Home deeded Cassady and Clark Cemeteries to Denton County after relocating the burials. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2011