Hillcrest Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker at Hillcrest Cemetery in Van Zandt County tells it this way, and I'm just followin' its lead. Canton, Texas. A town laid out in 1850, with a plat drawn and a future still being written.

And right there, within the boundaries of that original town plat, a cemetery took root. It's been keeping its quiet vigil ever since, for well over a century now. The oldest documented burial is that of Ann Calhoon, born in 1807, laid to rest in 1860.

Her name anchors the place to a time before the Civil War, before the world she knew would fracture and change. And she was far from alone. The men and women who followed her into that ground include Van Zandt County pioneers, the kind of people who arrived before the roads were roads.

Veterans are buried there too, soldiers from the Civil War, from World War I, from World War II, spanning generations of conflict, each one leaving something behind on a distant field before coming home to this one. Business leaders, community leaders, people whose names once meant something on a Saturday afternoon in Canton and whose names now rest on stones, or on no stone at all. Marked graves and unmarked graves both, because history doesn't always have the courtesy to leave a sign.

The marker calls Hillcrest a reflection of the town and its citizens, and that's exactly right. A town's cemetery doesn't just hold its dead. It holds its whole account.

Every pioneer, every soldier, every quiet neighbor, all of them part of Canton since that first plat was drawn in 1850. Ann Calhoon got there first, and the town has been filling in the story ever since.

What the marker says

Located within the original 1850 town plat of Canton, this cemetery has served citizens of this area for well over a century. The oldest documented burial is that of Ann Calhoon (1807-1860). Among those buried here in marked and unmarked graves are Van Zandt County pioneers; veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II; and business and community leaders. Serving as a reminder of Canton's pioneer heritage, the Hillcrest Cemetery is a reflection of the history of the town and its citizens. (1990)