Mount Zion Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Trinity County, on the J.J. Warren Survey, there's a patch of ground that remembers whole communities that most maps have long since forgotten.

Mount Zion Cemetery. And when I say it remembers them, I mean it in the most literal way a place can. The earliest marked stone belongs to Sarah A.

Womack, dated 1856. That's before the Civil War, before so much of what we think of as Texas history had even finished happening. And there are others dating back to the 1870s.

Vertical stones, many of them, standing up straight in the older section like they still have something to say. The communities that sent their people here, you ought to hear the names. Crib Creek.

Alabama Creek. Trevat. Helmic.

Crecy. Centralia. North Cedar.

Apple Springs. Dispersed communities, the marker calls them, scattered across the rural landscape of Trinity County. They were spread out, but they shared this ground.

Veterans are buried here, too, men who served in the U.S.-Mexico War and the Civil War, resting in the same quiet soil as their neighbors and their kin. Now, Mount Zion Church began in the early nineteenth century, and for a long time it was the keeper of this place. In 1894, J.A. and Lucinda Trevathan deeded the land for the cemetery to the church, making it official, making it permanent, or so everyone hoped.

The Baptist church maintained the burial ground faithfully, until the day it disbanded. And that could have been the end of the story. But it wasn't.

In 1973, the Mount Zion Cemetery Association took over the property. They provide financial support, they handle maintenance, and every year they oversee an annual homecoming. People coming back to this ground, on purpose, with intention.

That's not nothing. That's actually everything. Because what Mount Zion Cemetery is, at its heart, is a reminder.

A reminder of the people who settled this corner of Trinity County, who lived in those communities with the old names, who led in the development of this area over the years, and who now rest here among the vertical stones and the cedar and the quiet. The ground holds the memory. Somebody's got to tend it.

What the marker says

Mount Zion Cemetery, in the J.J. Warren Survey, originally served early dispersed communities, including Crib Creek, Alabama Creek, Trevat, Helmic, Crecy, Centralia, North Cedar and Apple Springs. The earliest marked stone, that of Sarah A. Womack, dates to 1856, and there are others dating to the 1870s. Many veterans are buried here, including those who served in the U.S.-Mexico War and Civil War. The older section of the cemetery features a concentration of vertical stones. Mount Zion Church began in the early 19th century, and J.A. and Lucinda Trevathan deeded the land for the cemetery to the church in 1894. The Baptist church maintained the burial ground until it disbanded. The Mount Zion Cemetery Association took over the property in 1973, and it now provides financial support and maintenance and oversees an annual homecoming. Today, the burial ground remains as a reminder of residents of rural Trinity County communities who settled this area and led in its development over the years. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2004