Hood Family Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight from the record. A.J. Hood was born in South Carolina in 1820, and somewhere along the way he got the notion that Texas was calling his name.

Around 1846 he showed up in Cherokee County, and he didn't exactly blend into the background. Within ten years he'd represented that part of the state for two full terms in the legislature, which is the kind of thing that'll get a man noticed. Then, ten years after arriving, he packed up his family and moved them out here to Parker County.

He hung out his shingle in Weatherford, eleven miles to the northwest, and built himself a law practice. That wasn't the end of the climbing, either; Hood went on to serve as district judge. Not bad for a South Carolina boy who'd crossed into Texas with everything still ahead of him.

Now, his wife Elizabeth (born in 1827, Elizabeth McEwen before she was a Hood) she had her own ideas about this land. She had picked out a particular spot near their home, already decided in her own mind that this was where they'd one day build a house. But life doesn't always follow the blueprint.

In 1865 this cemetery received its first burial, and it was Elizabeth herself who was laid to rest here. The spot she had chosen for a future home became instead the place where she was first remembered. And her grave, it isn't marked with anything quarried or shipped from somewhere grand.

There's a stone from the nearby creek sitting there, the land itself bearing witness. That detail right there has a weight to it that no courthouse record can quite match.

What the marker says

South Carolina native A.J. Hood (b. 1820) migrated to Cherokee County, Texas, about 1846. Ten years later, after representing that area during two terms of the state legislature, he moved his family here. Hood opened a law office in Weatherford (11 miles northwest) and later served as district judge. This family cemetery was first used in 1865 for the burial of Hood's wife Elizabeth (McEwen) (b. 1827). Located on land near their original home, this site was her choice for the construction of a future house. Her grave is marked with a stone from the nearby creek. (1980)