Indian Creek Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Indian Creek Cemetery in Cooke County. Now, most cemeteries start with a deed, a surveyor's line, a handshake between neighbors. This one started with a little boy.

Ten-year-old William J. Bray was buried on this property in 1867. No ceremony of establishment, no formal record of donation.

Just a family laying their child in the ground, the way families on the Texas frontier sometimes had to do. Eleven years passed. And then his parents, A.P. and Arabella Bray, came back to that land with something to say about it in writing.

They deeded one acre to establish a cemetery. Maybe they'd watched other families arrive, other losses follow. The marker doesn't say.

What it says is: they made it official. They gave the acre, and the place that had been holding grief quietly all that time now had a name to go with it. Bray Cemetery.

Then came 1910, and Elijah William and Mary Elizabeth Autry added one-half acre to the ground. Then 1944, when Ray and Lucy Cox deeded another one-half acre. Three families across three different generations, each one expanding the boundary, each one saying, in their own way, there's more room here, come lay your people down.

Today it goes by Indian Creek Cemetery, though the old name, Bray Cemetery, still trails behind it like a shadow that knows where it came from. Walk the grounds and you'll find headstones ranging from elaborate granite markers to hand-etched sandstone. Cedar trees shade the plots.

Iris, bluebonnets, and peonies grow among the stones. Pioneer families rest here. Military veterans.

Masons. Members of the Order of the Eastern Star. An association cares for the site to this day.

And somewhere in all of that, under the cedars and the wildflowers, is where it began: a ten-year-old boy in 1867, and the land his parents could not bring themselves to leave unconsecrated.

What the marker says

INDIAN CREEK CEMETERY TEN-YEAR-OLD WILLIAM J. BRAY WAS BURIED ON THIS PROPERTY IN 1867. ELEVEN YEARS LATER, HIS PARENTS, A.P. AND ARABELLA BRAY, DEEDED ONE ACRE TO ESTABLISH A CEMETERY. IN 1910, ELIJAH WILLIAM AND MARY ELIZABETH AUTRY DEEDED ONE-HALF ACRE, AND IN 1944, RAY AND LUCY COX DEEDED ANOTHER ONE-HALF ACRE. ORIGINALLY KNOWN AS BRAY CEMETERY, THIS BURIAL GROUND FEATURES HEADSTONES RANGING FROM ELABORATE GRANITE MARKERS TO HAND-ETCHED SANDSTONE SURROUNDED BY CEDAR TREES, IRIS, BLUEBONNETS, AND PEONIES. ALONG WITH PIONEER FAMILIES, MILITARY VETERANS, MASONS, AND MEMBERS OF THE ORDER OF THE EASTERN STAR ARE BURIED HERE. AN ASSOCIATION CARES FOR THE SITE, A TRIBUTE TO AN EARLY PIONEERING COMMUNITY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2009