Little River-Wilson Valley Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just doing my best to honor it. Picture a hillside somewhere in Bell County, Texas. Now picture a woman, Easter Cobb Wilson, looking out at that hill and saying, simply, that she wanted to rest there someday.

That wish, spoken out loud, became the seed of something that would outlast her by well over a century. The story starts in 1867. Seven Wilson brothers, along with their wives and children, and the Huckabee and Thornton families, packed up their lives in Mississippi and came to Texas.

They were escaping the devastation left behind by the Civil War. They settled in what became known as Wilson Valley, and they built something from the ground up. Easter Cobb Wilson was the family matriarch.

Her son Calvin took her wish about that hillside seriously. He designated a plot on that hill as a family cemetery. And then, as cemeteries do, it received its first soul.

In 1869, a three-year-old boy named William J. R. Wilson, son of Ben and Edna Wilson, became the first to be interred at that site.

Three years old. That detail lands quietly, and it should. By 1877, several others had already been buried there when Easter Cobb Wilson herself died, at age 81.

She got her hillside, just as she'd asked. The community around her kept growing. Wilson Valley became a thriving area.

But communities are subject to forces larger than any family's wishes, and when the railroad went through Little River instead of Wilson Valley, the balance shifted. Gradually, the two communities merged, and Wilson Valley folded itself into the broader story of Little River. In 1893, Bartlett and Avie McGregor Marks Huckabee deeded three and a quarter acres, specifically three point two seven acres, including that original family plot, to the trustees of the Wilson Valley Cemetery Association.

A deed is a kind of permanence. It says: this place is real, and it will remain. The graves in that cemetery tell a hard story if you read them right.

There is a high infant and child mortality rate reflected among the 19th century stones. And then comes 1917 and 1918, when influenza swept through and left its mark here the same way it left its mark almost everywhere. Still, the place endures.

A 19th century tabernacle stands on the grounds and is still used for meetings and ceremonies. And in 1997, someone walked that hillside and counted. More than thirteen hundred graves.

Thirteen hundred. All of it rooted in one woman's quiet wish about a hill she liked the look of.

What the marker says

Wilson Valley community originally consisted of the seven Wilson brothers, their wives and children, and the Huckabee and Thornton families. They came from Mississippi in 1867 to escape Civil War devastation. According to family tradition, Easter Cobb Wilson, family matriarch, expressed a desire to be buried on a certain hillside. Her son Calvin Wilson designated a plot on that hill to be a family cemetery. In 1869, William J. R. Wilson, 3-year-old son of Ben and Edna Wilson, became the first to be interred at this site. Several others had been buried by 1877 when Easter Cobb Wilson died at age 81. In 1893, Bartlett and Avie McGregor Marks Huckabee deeded 3.27 acres of land, including the family plot, to the trustees of the Wilson Valley Cemetery Association. Wilson Valley, which had become a thriving area, declined when the railroad went through Little River, and gradually the two communities merged. Graves in the cemetery reflect a high infant-child mortality rate in the late 19th century and deaths due to an influenza epidemic in 1917 and 1918. A 19th century tabernacle is used for meetings and ceremonies. In 1997, over 1,300 graves were counted in the cemetery. (1997)