Lemley Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Lemley Cemetery in Parker County. Now settle in, because this one starts, as so many Texas stories do, with land, and the people who put down roots in it. The earliest marked grave in this cemetery belongs to Elizabeth Moore, and it dates to 1857.

She was buried on part of a 160-acre tract of land that the Thomas B. Martin family had settled four years before, back in 1853. The state of Texas eventually patented that tract to Martin; six years after the family first put stake in the ground.

Four years, six years. Out on the Texas frontier, time had a way of moving slow and fast all at once. Now, the cemetery's existence turns up in Parker County deed records as early as 1869, and here's where another family enters the picture.

That's the year Martin sold his property to John H. and Thomas J. Lemley. The Lemleys had come to Texas from Illinois in the mid-1850s, making their way across the country before finally settling in Parker County.

When that land changed hands, so did the story of the cemetery sitting on it. It came to be named for them, and over the years, it received members of the Lemley family, their friends, and the settlers who lived nearby. The tombstones still standing mark the graves of landowners Thomas Martin and George Lemley, among others who lived and died in this corner of Parker County.

Many of those buried here were victims of the hardships of pioneer life on the Texas frontier; the marker doesn't soften that, and neither should I. At least five veterans of the Civil War are buried here as well, their service acknowledged even in this quiet ground. And then there are the graves marked only with native rocks: no name, no date, just stone pulled from the same earth where those folks spent their days.

That detail right there might be the most honest thing about the place. Lemley Cemetery holds all of it: the named and the unnamed, the veterans and the settlers, the hardship and the heritage of this part of Parker County. Some stories are carved in marble.

Some are just a rock in the grass. Both are worth stopping for.

What the marker says

The earliest marked grave in this cemetery, that of Elizabeth Moore, dates to 1857. She was buried on part of a 160-acre tract of land settled by the Thomas B. Martin family in 1853 and patented to Martin by the state of Texas six years later. The existence of the cemetery is reflected in the Parker County deed records as early as 1869, when Martin sold his property to John H. and Thomas J. Lemley. The Lemleys came to Texas from Illinois in the mid-1850s and eventually settled in Parker County. The cemetery on their property, which came to be named for them, was used over the years for members of the family, as well as for friends and nearby settlers. Tombstones mark the graves of landowners Thomas Martin and George Lemley, as well as others who lived and died in the area, many of whom were victims of the hardships of pioneer life on the Texas frontier. At least five veterans of the Civil War also are buried here. Many graves are marked only with native rocks. The historic Lemley Cemetery is thus an important reflection of the heritage of this part of Parker County. (1992)