Kaufman Pioneer Cemetery (Love Family Cemetery)

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. William and Nancy Kirk Love and their children were the earliest settlers near King's Fort, putting down roots there in January of 1845. Now, that's a name worth sitting with for a moment.

King's Fort. Sounds like the kind of place that already had a story before you arrived. And the Loves arrived, and they started writing their own.

They settled in, they built a life, and they set the kind of foundation that counties are made of. But as with most pioneer stories, the ground itself became part of the record before long. Their son, Robert H.

Love, is believed to have been the first person interred on this site, upon his death in March of 1849. He was the beginning of something no family wants to begin. Later that same year, when the Loves sold the land around the site, they did something careful and deliberate.

They set aside a quarter acre as a graveyard. They weren't letting go of everything. Nancy Love died in 1850.

William Love followed in 1851. Both are thought to be interred here in unmarked graves, which means they rest in the very ground they chose to protect, their names carried now only in records and in the telling. Also buried here is T.

J. Johnson, believed to have been the son of an African American couple who worked for the Love family. His presence in this ground is part of the story too, and it deserves to be said plainly.

Then there's J. D. Ballew, a farmer and onetime county treasurer.

Ann Burge, who may have died from complications in childbirth. And Amanada Murphy Hendley, member of a prominent pioneer family. Each name a thread, each life a chapter in a book that Kaufman County is still reading.

Now, one of the more remarkable figures resting here came a long way to get to Texas. James S. Laroe first came to Texas from New Jersey in 1846, and he brought his family here in 1851.

He was the kind of man who paid attention, and he wrote it all down. His diary describes the land, the wildlife, and the people of the area, and it stands today as a valuable firsthand account of the period. You don't get many of those.

Most pioneers left footprints. Laroe left words. His grandson Alfred Laroe was buried here as well, two generations now in the same quarter acre of Kaufman County soil.

Martha Jane Rayel, daughter of an early Kaufman County sheriff, rests here too. And Anna Love Campbell, who married James M. Carter after the death of her first husband.

Research has indicated that several members of the Carter family are also interred on this site. Different names, different journeys, different stories, all converging in one carefully set-aside quarter acre. The marker calls the Kaufman Pioneer Cemetery a chronicle of Texas history, and that's exactly right.

It's not just a place where people ended up. It's a place where people chose to remember, where a family selling land still said, this piece we keep. Some chronicles are written in diaries.

Some are written in the ground.

What the marker says

William and Nancy Kirk Love and their children were the earliest settlers near King's Fort, establishing themselves there in January 1845. Their son, Robert H. Love, is believed to have been the first person interred on this site upon his death in March 1849. When the Loves sold the land around this site in 1849 they set aside a quarter acre as a graveyard. Nancy Loved died in 1850, William Love in 1851; both are thought to be interred here in unmarked graves. Also buried here are other early Kaufman County settlers and T. J. Johnson, who is believed to have been the son of an African American couple for the Love family. Other burials include those of J. D. Ballew, a farmer and onetime county treasurer; Ann Burge, who may have died from complications in childbirth; and Amanada Murphy Hendley, member of a prominent pioneer family. Also interred here is James S. Loroe, who first came to Texas from New Jersey in 1846 and brought his family here in 1851. Laroe's diary describing the land, wildlife and people of the area provides a valuable firsthand account of the period. His grandson Alfred Laroe was buried here, as well. Martha Jane Rayel was the daughter of an early Kaufman County sheriff. Anna Love Campbell married James M. Carter after the death of her first husband, and research has indicated that several members of the Carter family are interred on this site. The Kaufman Pioneer Cemetery is a chronicle of Texas history. (1999)