DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm telling this one straight from the official marker — here's the story of Harris Creek Cemetery as the record has it. Out in McLennan County, sometime in the 1850s, four families came and staked their claim on land that most folks hadn't yet thought twice about. The Haley, Crain, Caufield, and Jones families — they were the first to arrive in this area, and they set about building something they called the community of Harris Creek, named for the water source running nearby.
They built lives. They built community. And, as communities do, they eventually built a place to say goodbye.
The Harris Creek Cemetery holds the earliest settlers and the generations that followed. The oldest marked grave belongs to a young woman named Hattie Timmons, who died in 1865 at the age of eighteen. She was the niece of Joel and Sarah Crain — and the Crains, now, they had roots here that went deep.
Joel had been granted this land for his services in the Battle of San Jacinto, back in 1836. That's the kind of history that doesn't just sit quiet. Joel Crain died in 1887.
Sarah followed in 1902. Both are buried here. So is their daughter Patience, whose grave is dated 1869 — the second oldest in the cemetery.
Three generations of one family, all resting on land that Joel earned at San Jacinto. Then in 1872, Aquilla and Delilah Jones — Dillie, as folks apparently knew her — formally set aside one and a half acres of their own land for the burial ground. Now that's not nothing.
That's a deliberate act of community-making, because part of that same acreage was also designated for a church and a schoolhouse. The dead, the faithful, and the schoolchildren, all neighbors on the same donated ground. Both Aquilla and Dillie Jones are buried there too, in marked graves.
Today, the Harris Creek Cemetery Association maintains those graves. And that burial ground, the marker tells us, is a good reflection of the history of Harris Creek and of this corner of McLennan County. Sometimes the way a community remembers its own says everything about who they were — and who they chose to keep.
What the marker says
The Haley, Crain, Caufield, and Jones Families were the first to arrive in this area in the 1850s. They established the community of Harris Creek, which takes its name from the nearby water source. This cemetery marks the burial place of those early settlers and others who have lived in the community since its founding. The earliest marked grave in the Harris Creek Cemetery is that of Hattie Timmons, who died in 1865 at the age of eighteen. She was the niece of Joel and Sarah Crain, who settled here on land granted to Joel for his services in the Battle of San Jacinto (1836). Joel (d. 1887) and Sarah (d. 1902) are buried here, as is their daughter Patience, whose grave, dated 1869, is the second oldest in the cemetery. In 1872, Aquilla and Delilah "Dillie" Jones formally set aside 1.5 acres of their land for the burial ground. Part of that acreage was also to be used for a church and schoolhouse. Both of the land donors are buried here in marked graves. The graves are maintained by the Harris Creek Cemetery Association. The burial ground is a good reflection of the history of the Harris Creek community and of this part of McLennan County.