Midway Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Andrew A. McKee, born in 1816, and Mary Barnes McKee, born in 1817, came to Texas in 1845.

Nine years later, in 1854, they purchased land right here in Polk County. Seems like they were putting down roots, building something meant to last. And in a way, Mary ensured that this particular piece of ground would last longer than either of them could have imagined.

According to local tradition, just before she died, Mary McKee walked out to a gopher mound on this property and pressed her footprint into it. That was her mark. That was her way of saying: here.

Bury us here. She died in childbirth, and she became the first person laid to rest on this land. Think about that for a moment.

The woman who chose this ground was the first one called to stay in it. By 1865, what had begun as a family plot had grown into something the whole Midway community and the surrounding area could call their own. And the people who found their rest here, well, they tell the full story of this part of Texas.

Pioneer settlers and their descendants. Former slaves. Veterans who served in conflicts stretching from the Civil War all the way to Vietnam.

Lives that span the whole arc of what this state has been and what it has cost. Andrew lived on until 1898, long enough to see the cemetery become something far greater than that first footprint on a gopher mound. The cemetery is maintained by an association to this day.

One woman's mark in the earth. A whole community gathered around it.

What the marker says

Andrew A. (1816-1898) and Mary Barnes (1817-1857) McKee came to Texas in 1845 and purchased land here in 1854. Mary, who died in childbirth, was the first person buried here. According to local tradition, just prior to her death Mary marked this site for family burials with her footprint on a gopher mound. By 1865 the cemetery served the Midway community and the surrounding area. Buried here are pioneer settlers and their descendants, former slaves, and veterans of conflicts from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. The cemetery is maintained by an association. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995