Huson Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Huson Cemetery, out there in Collin County. Now, most cemeteries just sort of happen, a death here, a plot there, and before long the land remembers more names than the living do. But Huson Cemetery, that one's got a story with a beginning, and it starts long before anyone called it by that name.

Allen Daniel packed up his family in Tennessee, him, his wife Elizabeth, eight children, and made the long haul to Texas in 1847. They weren't in a hurry to settle, exactly. They looked around, got the lay of the land, and by 1850 they found their place right here in this area of what would become Collin County.

Then in May of 1851, Allen Daniel went ahead and purchased four hundred and eighty acres. Nearly half a thousand acres of Texas ground. A man making plans.

Less than one year later, on February 25th, 1852, Allen Daniel died. And he was buried right there on his own land. Elizabeth carried on.

Eight children, four hundred and eighty acres, a fresh grave on the property, and a future still unwritten. One of their daughters. Tennessee P.

Daniel, named for the state they'd come from, grew up and married a man named D.E. Huson. And in 1875, Tennessee Huson bought the family land from her mother.

Now here's the part worth sitting with. It was during Tennessee Huson's ownership of that land that the ground surrounding her father's grave was given to the community as a public cemetery. She opened it up.

Let it become something bigger than a family plot. And over time, the way these things go, it gradually became known as Huson Cemetery. What grew up inside those fence lines was nothing less than a record of this whole corner of Texas.

The Daniel family's there, naturally. The Husons. The Wilcoxsons and the Redwines.

Two men credited by the marker with naming the town of Farmersville, John Hendrex and William Piunckney Chapman, they're buried there along with members of their families. And William Gotcher, who donated the land for the town square of Farmersville, he rests there too. And the marker makes sure you know this: also interred in Huson Cemetery are many former slaves and their descendants, the Nelson, Sneed, Glass, and Bryson families among them.

Pioneers in their own right, in a land that had not always recognized them as such. Hundreds of graves. Marked and unmarked both.

Each one a name that either the stone remembers or the ground holds quietly on its own. Allen Daniel bought four hundred and eighty acres to build a life on. He never could have known he was also staking out the resting place for generations of people not yet born, not yet arrived, not yet free.

That's the thing about land in Texas, you think you're buying it, but sometimes it's got other ideas about what it's for.

What the marker says

Allen Daniel and his family came to Texas from Tennessee in 1847. He and his wife Elizabeth were the parents of eight children. They settled in this area in 1850 and Daniel purchased 480 acres of land in May 1851. Less than one year later, on February 25, 1852, he died and was buried on his land. Allen and Elizabeth Daniel's daughter, Tennessee P. Daniel, was married to D.E. Huson. Tennessee Huson bought the family land from her mother in 1875, and it was during her ownership that the property surrounding her father's grave was given to the community as a public cemetery. It gradually became known as Huson Cemetery. Those interred in this historic graveyard include many pioneers of the area, including the Daniel, Huson, Wilcoxson, and Redwine families. John Hendrex and William Piunckney Chapman, who are credited with naming the town of Farmersville, and William Gotcher, who donated land for the town square, are buried here along with members of their families. Also interred here are many former slaves and their descendants, including the Nelson, Sneed, Glass, and Bryson families. The cemetery contains hundreds of marked and unmarked graves. (1989)