Hodge Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Now, some places earn their names through grand gestures, big battles, sweeping histories. Hodge Cemetery earned its name the quiet way, the way most things do out here in Bell County.

Somebody put down roots, and then, eventually, put down for good. The cemetery takes its name from J.W. Hodge, who purchased the surrounding property in 1870.

He was a native Texan, a successful rancher and farmer right here in Bell County, and when he died in 1920, he was laid to rest in the very ground he had once bought and worked. His wife Martha, born in 1849 and gone by 1905, rests beside him. That right there is a whole life condensed into two dates and a piece of Bell County soil.

But here is where the story gets interesting, and where you have to pay attention. J.W. Hodge bought that land in 1870.

The cemetery bears his name. And yet, walk among those stones and you will find markers that predate his ownership entirely. J.S. and Sallie Clary, area landowners both, were interred here in 1868.

Two years before Hodge ever held the deed. The ground was already keeping its secrets. Also resting here is Joseph Dennis, born in 1810 and gone in 1894, remembered by the marker as an early Bell County leader.

The whole place occupies less than one acre. Less than one acre, and yet it holds ranchers and leaders and landowners and a family going back before the Civil War's dust had fully settled. The marker calls Hodge Cemetery a good example of a pioneer graveyard, and I think that undersells it just a touch.

It is a small patch of earth doing a very large job, reminding anyone willing to slow down that Bell County's story did not begin with whoever happened to buy the land.

What the marker says

Occupying less than one acre of land, this cemetery is named for J.W. Hodge (d.1920), who purchased the surrounding property in 1870. Burials had taken place before that date, however, as indicated by the tombstones of J.S. and Sallie Clary, area landowners who were interred here in 1868. A native Texan, Hodge was a successful rancher and farmer in Bell County. He and his wife, Martha (1849-1905), are both buried here, as is Joseph Dennis (1810-1894), an early Bell County leader. Hodge Cemetery stands as a good example of a pioneer graveyard. (1985)