McCurley Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with all the weight it deserves. Way back in 1852, the McCurley family pulled up from Illinois and put down roots in Denton County. Now, when a family comes to new land like that, one of the first things they think about (whether they say it out loud or not) is where the road ends.

George Collins McCurley thought about it plainly enough. He set aside land for a burial ground, a church, and a school. The whole span of a life, right there in one gesture: where you learn, where you worship, where you rest.

The first soul buried in that ground? Well, the marker doesn't give us a name. Just a traveling stranger.

Somebody passing through who didn't make it to wherever they were headed. Anonymous to history, but first in that ground. Think on that a moment.

The first family member to follow was George's brother Abraham, who died in 1871. And then the plot sat quietly until 1877, when the first marked graves begin to appear; neighbors, this time, not just family. The McCurley ground had become a community's ground.

Now here's where the story takes a turn. By 1951, that cemetery held 106 graves. One hundred and six people at rest in the earth they or their kin had known.

And then came Lewisville Lake. The construction of that lake meant every single one of those 106 graves had to be relocated. Moved.

Lifted from the land George McCurley had set aside nearly a century before and carried to new ground. They were moved here, adjoining Old Hall Cemetery (which, as it happens, is the burial place of George C. McCurley himself).

So in the end, the community he helped gather found its way to rest beside him. A traveling stranger, a brother named Abraham, a hundred and six souls, and a lake that changed the county forever. The McCurley Cemetery holds all of it.

What the marker says

The McCurley family of Illinois settled in Denton County in 1852. George Collins McCurley set aside land for a burial ground, church, and school. A traveling stranger may have been the first burial, but George's brother, Abraham, who died in 1871, was the first family member buried at the site. The first marked graves date from 1877, when the plot began to be used by neighbors. In 1951 the 106 graves which then comprised the cemetery had to be relocated because of the construction of Lewisville Lake. They were moved here, adjoining Old Hall Cemetery, burial place of George C. McCurley. (1984)