Naler Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in McLennan County, there's a patch of ground that's been holding stories longer than the town nearby even had a name. This is the tale of the Naler Cemetery.

Joseph Naler was born in 1803, and by 1851 he had made up his mind to leave Georgia behind and head to this corner of Texas. He put down roots, claimed his land, and that land would end up meaning more than he likely reckoned at the time. The first burial on that ground came in 1863.

That was the year they laid Polly to rest. Polly Pruitt Naler, born in 1813, was Joseph's wife, and that plot of his own land became, from that moment on, something more than a farm. It became a place of remembrance.

Joseph himself lived on until 1882. He died over in Waco, but the story didn't end there. He was later reinterred right here, brought back to the same ground where Polly had been resting all those years.

The burial ground was chartered in 1900, and then in 1947 a cemetery association was organized to look after it proper. The original tract ran two acres, but over time that was enlarged by the addition of adjoining land, land that had once been the site of a Cumberland Presbyterian Church building. Now here's the thing that gives this place its particular weight.

The cemetery was already going, already receiving its pioneer dead, before the town of Moody was ever founded. The town came later. The cemetery came first.

And it's still there today, holding the graves of many of those early settlers, quiet and patient as the Texas clay itself.

What the marker says

Joseph Naler (1803-1882) migrated to this area from Georgia in 1851. Originally part of his land, this site was first used as a cemetery in 1863 for the burial of his wife Polly (Pruitt) (b. 1813). Naler died in Waco and was later reinterred here. The burial ground was chartered in 1900 and a cemetery association was organized in 1947. The original 2-acre tract was later enlarged by the addition of adjoining land, the former site of a Cumberland Presbyterian Church building. Started before the founding of Moody, the cemetery contains the graves of many pioneer settlers.