Old Kit Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Old Kit Cemetery, out in Dallas County. Pull over if you can, because this one's worth hearing slow. Settlers first came to this stretch of land, near where the Elm and west forks of the Trinity River meet, back in the mid-1800s.

That's old Texas ground, the kind where the stories run deep and the roots run deeper. One of those early arrivals was a man named Isaac Henry Story, known to just about everybody as Ike. Ike built a grocery store, and around that store grew a little community called Gorbit, though the spelling seemed to shift depending on who was doing the writing.

By 1888, Ike Story was the postmaster, and the post office was going by 'Gorbet.' He held that job until 1894, when the community's name changed to Kit. Ike stayed on as postmaster anyway, because some men just have a knack for showing up. He kept at it until 1904, when the Kit post office closed and moved on down to Irving.

Ike Story himself is buried at Old Kit Cemetery, which is really where this story wants to go. Now, that cemetery has an origin that'll stop you cold if you let it. It started in 1896, when a family passing through the area stopped near a grove of trees to make camp.

They had a sick child with them. They stopped to care for that child, and the child died. Strangers in an unfamiliar place, grieving, they went to the landowner, a man named David Chadwell Britain, and they asked him something simple and heartbreaking: could they bury their child there, in that grove where they had camped?

Britain said yes. More than that, he donated the land for a community cemetery. Today, the child's gravesite is unknown.

The family's name is unknown. That loss is buried inside the larger loss, and it just sits there at the center of the whole place. Britain didn't stop there.

He also deeded an adjoining acre to New Providence Baptist Church, with one condition: that the land be used continuously for church purposes. Several congregations have occupied that site over the years, holding to that stipulation. As the cemetery grew in its early days, the people of Kit and the surrounding communities came out and chose their own plots, not with surveyor's tools or precise measurements, but by stepping them off, one foot in front of the other across the ground.

That's a particular kind of trust, in your own judgment and in your neighbors. Many of those early settlers are interred there now. Among them is a woman known as Aunt Kit King, whom some sources credit as the namesake for the Kit community itself.

The marker is careful to say 'some sources,' and so will I. Veterans are buried there too, with service dating from the Civil War all the way to the present. Early French, German, and Belgian settlers found their final rest in that same ground, a community drawn from a wide world and planted in one small place.

In 1947, the people still tending to the cemetery formed Old Kit Cemetery, Incorporated, and by 1949 they had it incorporated proper. That organization continues to care for the grounds today. Burials are now restricted to direct descendants of the early settlers, which means the cemetery has become something like a family, one that has grown as large as it's going to grow but that still keeps faith with its own.

The community of Kit itself has long since been incorporated into Irving. But the cemetery remains, a chronicle of a rural world written in names and dates and the quiet stepping-off of plots. And somewhere in all of it, in a spot no one can point to anymore, rests a child whose family asked a stranger for a small piece of ground and got something that lasted more than a century.

What the marker says

Settlers came to this area near the Elm and west forks of the Trinity River in the mid-1800s. Isaac Henry "Ike" Story built a grocery store in what became the community of Gorbit (also known by similar spellings). Ike Story was the postmaster for "Gorbet" from 1888 until 1894, when the name was changed to Kit; Ike remained postmaster. In 1904, the Kit post office closed and moved to Irving. Ike Story is among the pioneers buried at Old Kit Cemetery. This community burial ground began in 1896, when a family passing through stopped to care for their sick child. When the child died, they asked landowner David Chadwell Britain if they could bury their child in the grove of trees where they had camped. Britain donated land for a community cemetery. The child's gravesite and the name of the family are now unknown. Britain also deeded one acre adjoining the cemetery to New Providence Baptist Church, stipulating that the land was to be used continuously for church purposes. Several congregations have occupied the site. Early in the cemetery's development, members of Kit and surrounding communities chose their own plots, stepping off plots rather than making precise measurements. Many early settlers are interred here, including Aunt Kit King, attributed by some sources to be the namesake for the Kit community. Many veterans with service dating from the Civil War to present are buried here, as well as early French, German and Belgian settlers. Old Kit Cemetery, Inc., formed in 1947 and incorporated in 1949, continues to care for the cemetery. Burials are now restricted to direct descendants of early settlers. The cemetery continues as a final resting place and a chronicle of a rural community now incorporated into Irving.