New Hope Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the marker at New Hope Cemetery tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. William James had a plan. Back in 1804, he came into this world, and by the time he'd seen enough of it, including a war with Mexico, he'd settled into Van Zandt County with something on his mind.

After 1871, he set aside land. Two acres for a school and a church. One acre for a cemetery.

The idea was to draw people in, to encourage settlement of what would later be called New Hope. And if you wanted folks to put down roots, well, you had to give them a place to put down roots permanently, too. That's the kind of long-game thinkin' that built this part of Texas.

Now here's the part that'll stay with you. William James, the man who set aside that one acre for a cemetery, is believed to have been the very first person buried in it. He lived until 1875.

The man who made the ground, became part of it. The oldest grave marker you can find there belongs to Frances E. Whitfield, born in 1857, gone by 1876.

She was young. The marker doesn't say more than that, and sometimes that silence is louder than any words. Then there's another grave, believed to belong to a woman who was traveling with her family along the Dallas-Shreveport Road.

She died in 1880, right there on the journey, and the road that was taking her somewhere became the last road she'd ever need. And finally, four Confederate soldiers rest in that one acre. D.

G. Baker. W.

N. Canant. J.

T. Ellis. And A.

M. Frears. All four of them men who surrendered with General Robert E.

Lee. They made it home from that war. They made it all the way to Van Zandt County.

And New Hope is where they stayed. One acre. A lot of living, and a lot of story, in one acre.

What the marker says

To encourage settlement of what was later New Hope in Van Zandt County, William James (1804-1875) set aside two acres for a school and church and one acre for a cemetery after 1871. James, a veteran of the Mexican War, is believed to have been the first person buried here. The oldest grave marker belongs to Frances E. Whitfield (1857-1876). Another grave is believed to be that of a woman who died while traveling with her family on the Dallas-Shreveport Road in 1880. Four Confederate soldiers are interred here: D. G. Baker, W. N. Canant, J. T. Ellis, and A. M. Frears, who surrendered with General Robert E. Lee. (1998)