Minter's Chapel Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Minter's Chapel Cemetery has to say: and it's quite a story for a patch of ground that outlasted everything around it. Way back about 1854, a lay minister by the name of Green W. Minter moved into this part of Tarrant County.

Now, Green W. Minter was born in 1803, and he wasn't the kind of man who settled in quietly; not long after arriving, he helped organize Minter's Chapel Methodist Church. His son-in-law, James Cate, set aside four and a tenth acres right here for a church and a burial ground.

You need both, eventually. The earliest marked grave belongs to someone named A.M. Newton, dated 1857.

And scattered across this ground, there are many tiny graves; the marker doesn't dress it up; many tiny graves, telling you plainly that child mortality ran high in those early years. That's a weight this soil has carried for a long time. The congregation worshipped first in a log meetinghouse, the way so many did out here, and then in 1882 they replaced it with a frame structure; a sign of a community that intended to stay.

Green W. Minter himself lived until 1887, long enough to see that frame church standing. Then came 1967, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport acquired the land.

All of it, except for this one and a half acres of cemetery. The church was relocated. The rest of the world moved on, quite literally, into the jet age.

But the cemetery stayed. Turns out a burial ground is the one thing you cannot just pick up and move to make way for progress. This little plot held its ground, and it's holding it still.

What the marker says

Soon after lay Minister Green W. Minter (1803-1887) moved here about 1854, he helped organize Minter's Chapel Methodist Church. His son-in-law James Cate set aside 4.1 acres here for a church and burial ground. The earliest marked grave is that of A.M. Newton in 1857. Many tiny graves indicate a high child mortality rate. The early log meetinghouse was replaced in 1882 by a frame structure. In 1967 the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport acquired the land, except for this 1.5-acre cemetery, and the church was relocated. (1979)