New Energy Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Out in Houston County, there's a patch of ground called New Energy Cemetery, and like a lot of things worth knowing about in Texas, it started with a stranger. A traveler, name and destination unknown, came to rest on the land of Mary Rice, known to folks around there as Polly.

That burial, quiet as it was, started something. This was the Civil War era, and the ground has been in use ever since. The oldest grave that actually carries an inscribed tombstone belongs to Walter Ashmore, dated 1870.

Think about that. Someone thought enough of Walter Ashmore to put his name in stone, and stone has a long memory. Over the years, members of the Duren and Hill families deeded acreage to the burial ground, growing it out a little at a time the way communities tend to grow things they care about.

The cemetery served the residents of New Energy and the surrounding settlements, and it didn't stand alone either. It was associated with a school and a union church, the kind of arrangement where a community plants everything it needs close together. And here's the part that lands quiet but lands hard.

Descendants of many of the area's pioneers continue to use the cemetery. Started with one unnamed traveler on Polly Rice's land, and the story is still being written, one name at a time.

What the marker says

Established with the burial of a traveler on the land of Mary (Polly) Rice, this cemetery dates to the Civil War era. The first grave that bears an inscribed tombstone, that of Walter Ashmore, is dated 1870. Over the years members of the Duren and Hill families have deeded acreage for the burial ground. It has served residents of New Energy and surrounding settlements and has been associated with a school and a union church. Descendants of many of the area's pioneers continue to use the cemetery.