DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it this way, and I'm passin' it along straight — this is the story of McGrady Cemetery, right here in Montague County. Allen R. McGrady and his wife Elizabeth — she was a Cox before she took the McGrady name — made their way to this part of Texas in 1859.
They put down roots on 160 acres along Clear Creek. Good land. The kind a family could build something on.
And they did build something. But the ground itself started keepin' records before the family was done. Sometime in the 1860s, a McGrady employee was killed by Indians and buried right there on the family farm.
That was the beginning of it — the cemetery didn't start with a plan, it started with a loss. One acre of land was set aside after that, carved out of those 160 along Clear Creek, to serve as a proper graveyard. Over the years, that one acre became the final resting place for McGrady family members and neighbors alike.
The kind of place that quietly fills up as a community lives and endures. And then, in September of 1899 — both Allen and Elizabeth McGrady died that same month. Whatever those weeks held, they went into that ground together, husband and wife, on land they had claimed back in 1859.
The cemetery still stands. A reminder, the marker says, of Montague County's pioneer heritage. Some reminders are gentle.
This one was earned the hard way.
What the marker says
Allen R. McGrady and his wife Elizabeth (Cox) moved to this area in 1859. They settled on 160 acres of land along Clear Creek. This cemetery began in the 1860s after a McGrady employee was killed by indians and buried on the family farm. One acre of land was set aside for the graveyard, which became the final resting place for many McGrady family members and neighbors. Allen and Elizabeth McGrady, both of whom died in September 1899, are interred here. The cemetery stands as a reminder of Montague County's pioneer heritage. (1991)