Hope Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Hope Cemetery in Falls County. Now settle in, because this one starts with a gift and ends with a kind of quiet endurance that'll stay with you. Falls County Judge W.

R. Reagan, who was also a pioneer school teacher, gave a ten-acre site in 1873 to Hope Baptist Church. Not just for Sunday worship, mind you.

For a meeting place, a school, and a burial ground, all at once. A sixty-one-member fellowship, under the pastorate of the Reverend J. J.

Davis, went ahead and erected a sanctuary to serve what the marker calls the Spunky Flat area. Now you don't hear a place name like Spunky Flat every day, and I'll just let that one hang in the air for a moment. After 1873, the first grave in that cemetery belonged to a young girl whose family was traveling through the region.

Passing through. They weren't even from there. And over that plot, the people who cared built a small house to mark the place.

Then a flood came, and the little house washed away. That first marked site still standing, dated 1874, is the grave of Alma Etta Watters. Then came 1921.

A summer revival, held under an arbor, revitalized the whole congregation. For several years after that, prayer meetings kept drawing large crowds out to that ground. But time has a way of pulling people along.

Residents moved to cities. Young men went into military service in World War II. The membership declined.

In 1943, the last service was conducted. The sanctuary itself was destroyed by fire in 1966. For a while, in the early years, relatives and friends were the ones keeping the burial ground in any kind of order, just people who cared enough to show up with whatever they had.

Then in 1974, the Hope Cemetery Association was organized. Five years later, a tabernacle was constructed. Today, that graveyard holds a hundred and four marked sites and many unmarked plots, and it continues to serve the area.

A flood took the little house. Fire took the sanctuary. Time took the congregation.

But the ground itself, that ten-acre gift from 1873, is still out there doing exactly what it was meant to do.

What the marker says

Falls County Judge W. R. Reagan, pioneer school teacher, gave this 10-acre site in 1873 to Hope Baptist Church for a meeting, school, and burial ground. The 61-member fellowship under the pastorate of the Rev. J. J. Davis erected a sanctuary to serve the "Spunky Flat" area. The first grave in the cemetery after 1873 was that of a young girl whose family was traveling through the region. Over the plot they built a small house which washed away in a flood. The first marked site, dated 1874, is that of Alma Etta Watters. A summer revival conducted in 1921 under an arbor revitalized the congregation, and for several years the prayer meetings continued to draw large crowds. As residents moved to cities and young men went into military service in World War II, the membership declined. IN 1943 the last service was conducted. The sanctuary was destroyed by fire in 1966. In the early years relatives and friends provided maintenance for the burial ground. Hope Cemetery Association was organized in 1974 and a tabernacle was constructed five years later. The graveyard, with 104 marked sites and many unmarked plots, continues to serve the area.