Old Klondike Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1849, two folks made their way down from Missouri to Texas. John Hunt, born in 1814, and Nancy Allard, born in 1813, were putting down roots in a new country.

They married in 1850, and life was moving forward the way it does when you're building something from nothing. Then, in 1852, a neighbor child named Eliza Armstrong died. And John and Nancy, without hesitation, gave a piece of their land so that little Eliza would have a proper resting place.

That's the kind of neighbors they were. Now, here's the part that settles on you quiet and heavy. John Hunt himself, born in 1814, died in 1853.

He became the second person buried on that very ground he had given away for someone else's grief. The land he offered in sorrow became his own home in the end. Nancy, though, she kept on living.

Born in 1813, she didn't leave this world until 1911. She outlasted nearly everything, carrying the memory of all of it. Their son, Joel J.

Hunt, born in 1851, grew up knowing what that ground meant. In 1878, Joel and his wife Joan Morgan Looney Hunt, born in 1857, made it official. They formally deeded the land for the cemetery, and the terms they set were plain and generous: a public burial ground, no charge for plots.

No one would be turned away for lack of money. That deed said something about who this family was. Joel lived until 1933, and Joan until 1924, long enough to see the ground they protected hold generations of their neighbors.

The Klondike Cemetery Association was established in 1960, and it provides perpetual care for the graveyard to this day. It started with one child, a grieving community, and two people willing to give what they had. That's the whole foundation right there.

What the marker says

John Hunt (1814 - 1853) and Nancy Allard (1813 - 1911) came to Texas from Missouri in 1849. Married in 1850, they gave land for a grave site when a neighbor child, Eliza Armstrong, died in 1852. John Hunt was the second person buried at the site. Joel J. Hunt (1851 - 1933), son of John and Nancy, and his wife, Joan Morgan Looney Hunt (1857 - 1924), formally deeded the land for the cemetery in 1878. The terms of the deed stated that it would be a public burial ground, with no charge for plots. The Klondike Cemetery Association, established in 1960, provides perpetual care for the graveyard.