Mount Zion Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture Indiana, 1856. John Dewees, born in 1819, and his wife Martha Jane Stevens Dewees, born in 1824, loaded up their family of seven children and pointed themselves toward Texas.

They weren't just passin' through. They purchased three hundred acres right on the banks of Camp Creek, and they put down roots the kind you can't pull up easy. The very next year, 1857, a community church got organized, and they named it Mount Zion.

The building that rose up to house it was a log structure (humble, sturdy, the kind of thing you build when you mean it), and John and Martha donated the land it stood on. That one building pulled double duty, servin' as both church and schoolhouse, which tells you somethin' about how much work there was to do and how few walls there were to do it in. A community grew up around it, took the same name (Mount Zion), like the place itself was claimin' its identity.

Then came 1859. The cemetery was established that year, marked into bein' by the death of Julia McCrearby. That's how these things begin: not with a ribbon-cuttin', but with a loss.

More than six hundred twenty-eight graves now rest in that ground. About five hundred ninety of them are marked. Veterans are buried there; men who served in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean conflict.

But here's the number that'll settle heavy on you if you let it: nearly one-fifth of all those graves belong to infants under one year of age. One-fifth. You sit with that a moment on a quiet Texas evening, and it'll say more than I can.

John Dewees, who died in 1893, is buried there. Martha Jane, who lived until 1905, is buried there. And six of their seven children (the ones who made that long journey from Indiana), they're there too.

County official A. R. Hartman, born in 1839 and died in 1917, rests in that same ground.

In 1988, the Mount Zion Cemetery Association was formally organized, setting up a permanent fund to keep the grounds maintained; because some places earn the right to be cared for. The site, the marker tells us, continues to serve the community as it has for more than a century. Three hundred acres, a donated piece of land, one log building, and a name.

That's what it took to start somethin' that's still standin'.

What the marker says

John Dewees (1819-1893) and his wife Martha Jane Stevens Dewees (1824-1905) migrated to Texas from Indiana in 1856 with their family of seven children. They purchased 300 acres of land on the banks of Camp Creek nearby. In 1857 a community church was organized and named Mount Zion. A log structure, built on land donated by John and Martha Dewees, served as a church and schoolhouse. The community cemetery was established in 1859 with the death of Julia McCrearby. A community also known as Mount Zion grew up around the church/school and cemetery. Of the more than 628 graves, about 590 are marked. Buried here are veterans from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean conflict. Nearly one-fifth of the graves are those of infants under one year of age. John and Martha Dewees and six of their seven children are buried here, as is county official A. R. Hartman (1839-1917). The Mount Zion Cemetery Association was formally organized in 1988 to establish a permanent fund for maintaining the grounds. The site continues to serve the community as it has for more than a century. (1997)