DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Macedonia Cemetery, out there in Williamson County. Pull over if you can — this one's worth a minute. Now, before the town of Granger ever showed up on a map, before the railroad had even thought about pushing through this corner of Texas, there was a place called Macedonia.
And before Macedonia, there was something even older — a congregation folks around here called the O'Possum Creek Church. According to local tradition, that congregation put up an all-faiths sanctuary in this very area as early as 1858. All faiths.
Whoever you were, whatever you believed, you had a place at that table. Through the 1860s, English and German immigrants started settling in around the Macedonia community, and by the 1870s, this little place had grown into something real. We're talking the Macedonia Baptist Church, a Masonic lodge, a gin, a granary, and a general store.
A thriving community, the marker says, and I believe it. Sometime before all that thrivин' reached its peak, the S. A.
Spiars family donated a parcel of land to the community. That parcel would come to include this cemetery. And the first recorded burial here was a man named J.
C. Witt, laid to rest on April 22, 1874. Now here's where the story turns.
In the early 1880s, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad came through, and with it came the town of Granger — established about two miles east of here. When a railroad town sets up shop two miles away, well, residents and businesses tend to follow. And that's exactly what happened to Macedonia.
One by one, they dispersed. The church, the lodge, the gin, the granary, the store — all of it, gone. All of it, that is, except one thing.
This graveyard. The last remaining physical evidence of a once-thrivин' community, sitting quiet and abandoned. It stayed that way for the better part of a century.
Then, in 1971, the descendants of the people buried here decided that wasn't good enough. They formed a cemetery association, and they came back to restore and preserve what their people had left behind. The cemetery is still in use today — holding pioneers of this area and their descendants, and veterans of the Civil War.
Macedonia the town is long gone. But this ground remembers it. And out here on the road, so do we.
What the marker says
According to local tradition a congregation known as the O'Possum Creek Church built an all-faiths sanctuary in this area as early as 1858. During the 1860s the Macedonia community began to develop as English and German immigrants settled in the area. During the 1870s Macedonia developed into a thriving community consisting of the Macedonia Baptist Church, a Masonic lodge, a gin, a granary, and a general store. A parcel of land which later included this cemetery was donated to the community by the S. A. Spiars family sometime prior to the first recorded burial here, that of J. C. Witt on April 22, 1874. Macedonia residents and businesses began to disperse after the town of Granger was established about two miles east of here in the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in the early 1880s. Eventually, the last remaining physical evidence of the once-thriving community of Macedonia was this graveyard. Macedonia Cemetery was abandoned until 1971, when descendants of people buried here formed a cemetery association to restore and preserve the graveyard. The cemetery remains in use and includes the burials of pioneers of this area and their descendants and veterans of the Civil War.