Mount Gilead Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Mount Gilead Cemetery. Now, every old graveyard in Texas has got a story underneath it, and I mean that in more ways than one. Mount Gilead Cemetery, out in Tarrant County, is one of those places where the land itself remembers things the headstones can't quite say.

It starts in 1847, when a group of related families picked up and moved all the way from Missouri to join what was known as the Peters Colony. They came together, kin tied to kin, and the woman leading that whole migration was a widow by the name of Permelia Allen. Let that settle for a moment.

A widow, heading a wagon train of families into frontier Texas. She lived until 1866, and when she died, she was laid to rest right here in this very ground in an unmarked grave. No stone.

No name carved in granite. Just the earth. The land this cemetery sits on was first owned by two of her sons-in-law.

Daniel Barcroft, born in 1812, died in 1881. And Iraneous Neace, born 1816, died 1879. The tract sat right next to the Mount Gilead Baptist Church and School, so this was a community in the fullest sense of the word.

A place to worship, a place to learn, and, eventually, a place to be remembered. The earliest marked grave belongs to William Joyce, born 1836, died 1854. Eighteen years old.

Sometimes the frontier didn't give you much time. And scattered across this ground, you'll find homemade grave markers (rough-hewn, handmade) each one a quiet reflection of the pioneer life these early settlers were living. No stonemason, no engraver.

Just the people who were left behind, doing what they could with what they had. Permelia Allen led her people to this place, and this place held them all. The marked and the unmarked alike.

That's the thing about a pioneer cemetery; it doesn't just tell you who was here. It tells you what it cost to be here.

What the marker says

This burial ground originally served a pioneer settlement of related families who migrated to the area from Missouri in 1847 as members of the Peters Colony. They were headed by a widow, Permelia Allen (d. 1866), who is buried here in an unmarked grave. This tract, adjacent to the Mount Gilead Baptist Church and School, was first owned by her sons-in-law Daniel Barcroft (1812-81) and Iraneous Neace (1816-79). The earliest marked gravesite is that of William Joyce (1836-54). Homemade grave markers here reflect the pioneer lifestyle the early settlers. (1981)