McDonald Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about McDonald Cemetery in Cherokee County. Now settle in, because this one's got the kind of quiet weight that only a place full of names and silence can carry. We're talkin' about a cemetery that's been holdin' Cherokee County's stories since the eighteen fifties, and friend, there are layers here.

The ground started receivin' the dead before anyone even thought to write it down official. It sat on the original homestead of William and Clarissa Johnson and their family, and the marker tells us the cemetery began in the eighteen fifties. There may have been earlier burials, possibly including William Johnson himself, but the record gets firm in eighteen fifty-six.

That year, two young daughters of Dr. and Mrs. J. C.

Privett were laid to rest there. Two little girls. And then, the very next year, eighteen fifty-seven, Dr.

Privett himself died and was buried right beside them. A father resting next to his daughters. The ground was already keepin' its accounts.

Then comes eighteen fifty-eight, and Clarissa Johnson married a man named Thomas McDonald. Her homestead took on his name, became known as the McDonald Farm, and that small graveyard on her land, it kept growin' right along with everything else. By eighteen seventy, neighbors and kin and strangers who'd become neighbors were all findin' their way there.

It had grown from a family plot into a community burial ground, and folks were callin' it McDonald Cemetery, though it wouldn't be formally designated as such in deed records until nineteen thirty. Sixty years of bein' known by a name before the paperwork caught up. That's a Texas pace for you.

Today there are over five hundred fifty documented burials in that one-acre plot, a plot that was enlarged over the years by additional land acquisitions, along with a number of unmarked graves, names the ground is keepin' to itself. Members of the Johnson family are there. Members of the McDonald family are there.

For well over a century this place has served as a reminder of Cherokee County's pioneer heritage. Some reminders are carved in stone. This one is the stone.

What the marker says

Located on the original homestead of William and Clarissa Johnson and their family, this community cemetery began in the 1850s. Although there may have been earlier interments (possibly including William Johnson) the earliest documented burials, those of two young daughters of Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Privett, took place in 1856. Dr. Privett died in 1857 and was buried next to his daughters. After Clarissa Johnson married Thomas McDonald in 1858, her homestead became known as the McDonald Farm. By 1870 the small graveyard on Clarissa's farm had become a community burial ground known as McDonald Cemetery, although it was not formally designated as such in deed records until 1930. Among those buried in the McDonald Cemetery are members of the Johnson and McDonald families. There are over 550 documented burials, as well as a number of unmarked graves. The original one-acre plot of land set aside for the graveyard was enlarged in later years by additional land acquisitions. For well over a century, the McDonald Cemetery has served as a reminder of Cherokee County's pioneer heritage. It remains one of the area's important cultural resources.