Moorehead-Melton Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Out in Henderson County, on a stretch of land that was once part of the Elizabeth Washburn Survey, there's a cemetery that has been quietly holding the stories of the land longer than most folks around here can remember. The place is called the Moorehead-Melton Cemetery, and to understand it, you have to go back to the beginning.

Andrew and Nancy Moorehead owned this land, and their family was the first to use this ground as a resting place. They were South Carolina folks originally, the Mooreheads, who made their way west by stages, putting down roots in Alabama before pulling them up again and arriving in Texas by the 1850s. That kind of migration, state by state, generation by generation, was a particular kind of determination.

Then in 1884, a Tennessee native named Elias Melton and his first wife, Anna, whose maiden name was Capps, bought the surrounding farmland. The Moorehead ground and the Melton farmland, side by side, with time doing what time does. It wasn't until 1920 that Elias and his son Charles D. formally set aside land for a community cemetery.

Now here's the thing that ought to give you pause on a quiet road like this one. The graves in this place predate the founding of nearby Eustace by decades. The earliest marked grave belongs to James Weakes, who died in 1870.

Pioneers are here. Veterans are here, men who served in military service dating all the way back to the Civil War. And scattered among the marked stones are many early unmarked graves, lives lived and laid down without even a name left standing in the grass.

In 1979, descendants of the Melton family gave another donation of land to the site, and that's when it took on the name it carries today. An association maintains the grounds, and every year folks come together here for a memorial service and a business meeting, area residents and family members and others, gathering to honor their common heritage. Some cemeteries just hold the dead.

This one keeps gathering the living.

What the marker says

Located in the Elizabeth Washburn Survey on land owned by Andrew and Nancy Moorehead, this site first served as a burial ground for members of their extended family. Natives of South Carolina, the Mooreheads migrated west and settled in Alabama before moving to Texas by the 1850s. In 1884, Tennessee native Elias Melton and his first wife, Anna (Capps), bought the surrounding farmland. In 1920, Elias and son Charles D. formally set aside land for the community cemetery. Gravesites here predate the founding of nearby Eustace by decades. The earliest marked grave is that of James Weakes, who died in 1870. Others buried here include pioneer area settlers and veterans of military service dating to the Civil War. There are also many early unmarked graves. In 1979, Melton family descendants gave another donation of land, and the site became known as the Moorehead-Melton Cemetery. Maintained by an association, the graveyard is the site of an annual memorial service and business meeting, where area residents, family members and others gather in honor of their common heritage. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004