New Providence Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm going to tell it to you. Out in Gregg County, there is a cemetery called New Providence, and the story of how it came to be, and how it almost disappeared, is the kind of story Texas likes to keep quiet out in the pines. It starts with a church.

The New Providence Missionary Baptist Church was founded back in the 1880s, and for a good while it was the kind of congregation that held a community together. The first documented burial in that cemetery was W. E.

Newton, in 1896. That's where the story of New Providence Cemetery truly begins, with a name in the ground. Then came 1903, and 1903 had a lot to say.

That year the church was damaged by a windstorm. Then it was struck by lightning. And then, as if two blows weren't enough, it burned to the ground.

Three calamities on one building in one year. Without a church building, the congregation disbanded. Just like that, the community that had gathered, prayed, and buried its dead together simply scattered.

For years, the cemetery sat without anyone to tend it, without a congregation to claim it. Then, in 1921, something stirred. The congregation was briefly reorganized, but its only purpose by then was to maintain the cemetery.

To keep the graves from being swallowed up entirely. It held together for four years. By 1925 it broke up again.

Now, you might think that's a sad ending, and in some ways it is. But walk through those fifty-eight graves and you start to understand what New Providence held. Veterans of five wars rest there.

A former county judge. A former district judge. Five of those fifty-eight graves are unmarked, their stories quieter than the rest.

The church is gone. The congregation is gone. But New Providence Cemetery is still there, still holding the people it promised to keep.

What the marker says

This cemetery was associated with the New Providence Missionary Baptist Church, which was founded in the 1880s. The first documented burial was of W. E. Newton in 1896. In 1903 the church was damaged by a windstorm, struck by lightning and later burned to the ground. Without a church building, the congregation disbanded. It was briefly reorganized in 1921 to maintain the cemetery, but broke up again in 1925. Five of the 58 graves are unmarked. Among those buried here are veterans of five wars, a former county judge and a former district judge.