Old Alton Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker, so let's see what the ground out here in Denton County has to say. Now, every piece of land out here has a story, but some pieces of land hold their stories a little more literally than others. The Old Alton Cemetery has been holding its stories since 1852, and that is not a small number when you're standing in Texas.

It started, as so many things do, with a family and a loss. A young woman named Rebecca Daugherty, daughter of one of the pioneer families, died in 1852 and was buried on family property. That was the beginning.

Then neighbors came. Then relatives. One by one, the way communities always grow, except this one was growin' downward into the earth.

By 1909, the land was donated and dedicated as a private cemetery, giving official shape to what the community had already been doing for more than fifty years. Now here is the part worth slowing down for. Alton, the town connected to this cemetery, was no quiet little crossroads.

From 1851 until 1856, Alton was the county seat of Denton County. Situated right on Hickory Creek, it had stores, a hotel, a post office, a school, other businesses. It had the Hickory Creek Baptist Church, organized right there in the community in 1855.

Alton was the center of things. The heart of the county. And then, in 1856, the county seat moved to Denton.

After that, Alton began to decline. That's what the marker says, plain and simple. The town that had a hotel and a post office and all the busy machinery of civic life; it started to fade.

But here is the quiet truth that the cemetery keeps: the families stayed. Maybe not all of them, maybe not in body, but in the way that matters most out here, they kept coming back to bury their dead. Generation after generation, they returned to this ground on Hickory Creek.

Today that cemetery holds more than six hundred burials. Twenty graves are unmarked entirely. Fifty-five more are marked only with rocks or sandstone, no names, no dates, just the stone itself saying: someone was here.

Pioneers rest here. Veterans rest here. People whose only remaining address is this patch of ground in Denton County.

The Old Alton Memorial Cemetery Association tends these graves and gathers every spring for Decoration Day. Once a year, the living come back to honor the dead, the way people in these parts have always done. As the area grows more urban, and it is growin', make no mistake, the Old Alton Cemetery stands as a reminder of the region's rural past.

Six hundred souls, a lost county seat, and a little girl named Rebecca Daugherty, buried on family land in 1852. That's where it started. And in a manner of speaking, that's where it all still is.

What the marker says

With burials dating to 1852, this graveyard is associated with some of the earliest settlement in Denton County. In that year, Rebecca Daugherty, daughter of one of the pioneer families, died and was buried on family property. Over time, burials of neighbors and relatives continued on the site, and in 1909 the land was donated and dedicated as a private cemetery. Alton was the county seat of Denton County from 1851 until 1856. Located on Hickory Creek, the community flourished with stores, a hotel, post office, school and other businesses. Nearby is the Hickory Creek Baptist Church, organized in the Alton community in 1855. When the county seat was moved to Denton in 1856, Alton began to decline, but many families continued to bury their dead in this cemetery. The graveyard contains more than 600 burials, including 20 graves that are unmarked and 55 burials that are marked only with rocks or sandstone. Pioneers, veterans and others with ties to the old Alton community rest here. The Old Alton Memorial Cemetery Association cares for the graves and gathers annually in the spring for Decoration Day. As the area becomes more urban, the Old Alton Cemetery stands as a reminder of the region's rural past. (2002)