Lone Oak Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is the story of Lone Oak Cemetery, out in McLennan County. Now, the land was meant for a church and a school.

That was the plan. The Trustees of the Lone Oak School purchased the site in 1880 from A.C. Neil and L.M.

Cravens, and somebody, somewhere, had big intentions for what would rise up on that ground. But land has a way of deciding its own purpose. By September of 1881, before any congregation had gathered or any schoolbell had rung, a family named Goodman walked out to that site carrying something no parent should ever have to carry.

The infant son of J.C. and S.D. Goodman was buried there, and just like that, the ground became what it would remain. A place for the dead.

A place for the community's dead. Pioneer settlers of the surrounding area would follow, generation by generation. And among those interred, the marker is careful to tell us, are several Confederate veterans of the Civil War, and one Union veteran as well.

One Union man, resting in Texas soil alongside men who wore the other color. Whatever divided them in life, this ground took them all the same. The Lone Oak Cemetery Association was established in 1949, and a perpetual care trust fund was started in 1967, because some places, once they've been given that first responsibility, you don't let them go to ruin.

You keep faith with them.

What the marker says

This community burial ground originally served the pioneer settlers of the surrounding area. Trustees of the Lone Oak School purchased the site in 1880 from A.C. Neil and L.M. Cravens. Although set aside for a church and school, it was used as a cemetery by September 1881 when the infant son of J.C. and S.D. Goodman was buried here. Also interred here are several Confederate veterans and one Union veteran of the Civil War. The Lone Oak Cemetery Association was established in 1949 and a perpetual care trust fund was started in 1967.