Link Family Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Now settle in, because this one's quiet — but it carries the kind of weight that doesn't let go. It's a story about a family, a patch of East Texas ground, and two little girls named Annie and Allean.

July of 1887. John and Mary Otelia Link buried one daughter, and then, within a single week, they buried another. Both children taken by diphtheria.

One week. Same disease. Same parents.

Same grief, arriving twice before it even had time to lift. There are moments in history you don't need to dramatize. That's one of them.

Now, there was no Catholic cemetery nearby at the time — that's what the marker tells us. And local tradition holds that the heat of a Texas July made transporting unpreserved bodies over any great distance simply impractical. So the children were buried near their home.

The next year, 1888, John Link himself died, and he was laid to rest right next to his daughters. The Links buried their people the way rural Texas buried its people in the nineteenth century. The deceased was washed and laid out on a cooling board.

Bags of saltpeter, or silver coins, placed over the eyes. Friends and neighbors gathered to share the undertaking — because out here, that's what neighbors did. The casket was locally manufactured, and pallbearers lowered it into the ground using three traditional cotton straps.

Afterwards, folks gathered at the home of the deceased to eat and to offer what comfort words can carry. It's a complete ritual, born out of necessity and held together by community. Years passed.

The family land changed hands, as land does. And in 1919, Andrew B. Link — the eldest son of John and Mary Otelia — formally set the cemetery aside.

He did it in a deed transferring family land to his youngest brother, John F. Link. He made sure that ground would stay what it had become.

Today, the Link Family Cemetery holds thirty-two burials. Eleven of them are children under the age of six. Eleven.

Out of thirty-two. You let that number sit for a second. A family association maintains the cemetery still, which means someone is still showing up.

Still tending to Annie and Allean and John and all the rest. That's not nothing. That's everything.

What the marker says

This cemetery was established when John and Mary Otelia Link buried their young daughters Annie and Allean at this site within a week of each other in July of 1887. Both children died of diphtheria. At that time no Catholic cemetery existed nearby and local tradition suggests the children were buried near their home because transportation of unpreserved bodies over a long distance in the heat was impractical. John Link died in 1888 and was buried next to his daughters. The Links practiced burial procedures commonly used in rural Texas in the 19th century. The deceased was washed and laid out on a cooling board with bags of saltpeter or silver coins placed over the eyes in an undertaking shared by friends and neighbors. Pallbearers lowered the locally manufactured casket with the use of three traditional cotton straps. After the burial, participants gathered at the home of the deceased to eat and express sympathy. John and Mary's eldest son Andrew B. Link formally set aside the cemetery in a deed transferring family land to his youngest brother John F. Link in 1919. Of the 32 burials currently in the cemetery, 11 are of children under the age of 6. The Link Family Cemetery is maintained by an association of family members. (1993)