New Hope Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker record for New Hope Cemetery out in Jones County. Now settle in, because this one starts the way a lot of Texas stories do: with a family, a stretch of hard land, and a grave dug under a tree before anybody had thought to call the place a cemetery. William F.

Bean was born in 1872, and his wife Birdie, born in 1881, were among the very first settlers to put down roots in the New Hope community. Both their families came in together, back in 1883. That's two families arriving in the same year, hauling their hopes and their histories out to a piece of Jones County ground.

William's great-uncle, a man named Amos Bean, died somewhere in the span between 1883 and 1890. No formal burying ground yet, so they laid him to rest under a tree, right there on Bean farmland. That tree marked the beginning of something, though nobody had a name for it yet.

Then in 1890, the newborn son of W. L. and Georgia Whitaker was interred nearby. The land was already becoming a place of memory, quietly, one grief at a time.

Three more infants and children followed, buried on Bean farmland in 1891, 1898, and 1899. Five graves now, each one a story the community carried. William Bean must have understood what that ground had already become, because in 1899, he deeded land three quarters of a mile northwest of his great-uncle's resting place, set it aside proper, a burial ground for the whole New Hope community.

He didn't leave those first five graves behind, either. The land he gave grew over time to three full acres, and it grew to include them. Birdie Bean, born 1881, died 1917.

William himself, born 1872, died 1944. They are both here now, in the community they helped build. And they are not alone in the company of notable souls.

J. E. Skiles, longtime minister of the Baptist church, is interred here.

So is James Williams, who taught school at New Hope, and his wife Mary Artealy Williams, and their descendants after them. A minister, a schoolteacher, a farming family, five early graves under open sky. Three acres holding all of it.

That is New Hope Cemetery, and that is how a community decides, without ever quite deciding, where it wants to remember itself.

What the marker says

William F. Bean (1872-1944) and his wife Birdie Bean (1881-1917) were among the first settlers to the New Hope community; both their families arrived in 1883. William's great-uncle, Amos Bean, died between 1883 and 1890 and was interred under a tree on Bean farmland. The newborn son of W. L and Georgia Whitaker was interred nearby in 1890. Three more infants and children were buried on Bean farmland in 1891, 1898 and 1899. William Bean deeded the land 3/4 mile northwest of his great-uncle's grave for a New Hope community burial ground in 1899. Since that time the cemetery has grown to three acres including the first five graves. Other interred here include J. E. Skiles, longtime minister of the Baptist church; James Williams, who taught school at New Hope; his wife Mary Artealy Williams; and their descendants. (2000)