Mount Olive Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker records about Mount Olive Cemetery in Erath County. Now, some stories start with a grand event, a battle or a founding. This one starts with something quieter, and in its own way, just as powerful.

A purchase. A deed. A piece of ground that a community decided belonged to them.

In 1922, the Colored Burial Association purchased acreage from a man named Charles Neblett. And on that ground, they established Mount Olive Cemetery. But here's the thing to sit with for a moment: the community didn't wait for the paperwork to settle before they got to work.

The very first burial at Mount Olive took place on May 5, 1922, for a man named Wallace Howell. The ink was barely dry, and already the land was doing what it was meant to do. And they didn't start from nothing, not exactly.

Many of those first burials were relocated graves, moved over from the segregated West End Cemetery, where African American Stephenville residents had been laid to rest going all the way back to 1856. Mount Olive became, in a sense, a gathering in. A coming together of the remembered.

Headstone inventories and death records tell us the cemetery holds more than two hundred and fifty known African American graves. And likely dozens more without markers, without names on stone, but present all the same. The Colored Burial Association maintained this ground until 1972.

Fifty years of tending, of keeping the grass and the memory both from going wild. Mount Olive is still an active burial ground today. Still receiving.

Still holding. The marker calls it a significant view into the African American heritage of Stephenville, and that is exactly right. Some views you earn by climbing.

Some, you earn by staying.

What the marker says

This historic African American cemetery was established in 1922 when the Colored Burial Association purchased acreage from Charles Neblett. Many of the first burials were relocated graves from the segregated West End Cemetery, dating to 1856. The first burial at Mount Olive Cemetery was on May 5, 1922, for Wallace Howell. According to headstone inventories and death records, the cemetery contains more than 250 known African American graves with likely dozens more unmarked. The Colored Burial Association maintained the cemetery until 1972. The cemetery remains an active burial ground with a significant view into the African American heritage of Stephenville. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2012