Moore's Chapel Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Alexander Moore came into this world in Missouri, and Mary Jane Jones came into hers in Virginia, and somehow the two of them found each other in St. Genevieve, Missouri, where they married in 1856.

One year later, they were Texans. They purchased land out here in Fannin County in 1857, and whatever they found, they decided to stay. By the mid-1870s, the community around them had grown fast enough that the Moores donated two acres of their land for a cemetery.

That is the kind of thing you do when you're putting down roots that are meant to last. The first recorded burial came on March 11, 1876. Her name was Martha Cashion, an early pioneer settler, a friend and neighbor of the Moores.

You think about that. The very first name written into this ground belonged to someone who had stood at the Moore family's door, shared meals maybe, shared hard years certainly. Then the Baptists of the area erected a sanctuary just north of that cemetery, on more land donated by the Moores, and it became known as Moore's Chapel Church.

The community took the name too. Moore's Chapel. Now here is a quiet and sobering thing the marker tells us.

Look at the burial records from the 1880s and 1890s, and you will find an unusually high number of infant burials. Typhoid fever. It came through this community and it did not spare the smallest among them.

The ground here holds that grief too, and it deserves to be said plainly. Alexander Moore himself was buried here in 1915, in the very land he and Mary Jane had given over to their neighbors decades before. Moore's Chapel Cemetery, the church beside it, the school buildings nearby, all of it made up the community center for the people who lived and worked and worshipped here.

And the cemetery holds them still, pioneer settlers and their descendants, and veterans whose service ranged from the Civil War all the way to World War II. It is maintained by an association to this day, still serving the community. Alexander Moore donated two acres and, it turns out, he gave them something that has lasted well past a lifetime.

What the marker says

Missouri native Alexander Moore married Virginia native Mary Jane Jones in St. Genevieve, Missouri, in 1856. They moved to Texas and purchased land in this area in 1857. The Moore donated two acres here to a rapidly growing community for cemetery purposes in the mid-1870s. The first recorded burial was that of Martha Cashion, early pioneer settler and a friend and neighbor of the Moores, on March 11, 1876. Area Baptists erected a sanctuary just north of the cemetery on land donated by the Moores that became known as Moore's Chapel Church. The community and this cemetery also became known as Moore's Chapel. An unusually high number of infant burials during the 1880s and 1890s reflect an outbreak of typhoid fever. Alexander Moore was buried here in 1915. Moore's Chapel Cemetery and adjacent church and school buildings made up the community center. The cemetery contains the burials of many of the area's pioneer settlers and their descendants and veterans of wars ranging from the Civil War to World War II. The cemetery is maintained by an association and continues to serve the community.