DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Old Mounds Cemetery, out in Hardeman County. Now, there are places in Texas that the land just swallowed whole. Blinked once, and they were gone.
Old Mounds is one of those places — and the only thing left to prove it ever existed at all is a quiet stretch of ground right here in southeast Hardeman County. The story starts with the mounds themselves. Out in a county that lays flat as a skillet lid in every direction, these mounds rise up abrupt, like the earth had something to say.
One of them held springs, herbs, and gypsum that folks believed had medicinal properties. The settlement that grew up nearby took its name from those mounds — Medicine Mound — and by the late 1800s it had put together the makings of a real community. Gobins' General Merchandise Store.
A school. A church. The school and the church, mind you, were the same one-room building — which, depending on the sermon, might not have felt all that different on either day of the week.
Right next to that building, the community laid out its cemetery. Farmers and ranchers mostly, the people who came here. And while little is known about the early pioneers buried in this ground, we do know that roughly nine burials took place in the community's early history.
Only one original gravestone survived — dated 1891 — and it marks not one but two infants. Smoot Kerley and Ford Kerley, children of settlers J.C. and Ida Kerley. Two small lives, one stone.
You sit with that a moment. Other known burials here are of Old Mounds residents of Mexican descent — Hispanic families who lived and worked this same land, who built something alongside their neighbors, and who now rest in the same forgotten ground. Then came the railroad.
In 1908, the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway laid track two and a half miles north of here. And that, friend, was all she wrote. Where the railroad goes, the people follow.
Residents packed up and moved toward those tracks, and the old settlement gradually came to be known as Old Mounds — a name that already had a little melancholy baked right into it. By 1919, even the school had relocated. And soon the settlement was entirely abandoned.
The cemetery along with it. Today, this burial ground is all that remains. No store, no schoolhouse, no church.
Just this piece of ground, holding the memory of the pioneering farmers and ranchers and the Hispanic families who made something out here before the railroad pulled everyone two and a half miles north and the prairie took the rest. Some towns get museums. Old Mounds got a cemetery.
And somehow, that feels exactly right.
What the marker says
This cemetery served residents of the original site of the community of Medicine Mound in southeast Hardeman County. The settlement took its name from mounds that rise abruptly from the otherwise flat topography of the county; one mound contained springs, herbs and gypsum believed to have medicinal properties. Established by the late 1800s, the community consisted of Gobins' General Merchandise Store, a school and a church. The cemetery was adjacent to the one-room building used both as a schoolhouse and sanctuary. Most early residents of the community participated in farming or ranching activities. Little information is known about the early pioneers buried here. It is believed that approximately nine burials took place in the community's early history. Only one original gravestone, dated 1891, is preserved, and it marks the burials of two infants, Smoot and Ford Kerley, children of settlers J.C. and Ida Kerley. Other known burials are of Old Mounds residents of Mexican descent. In 1908, the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway laid track two and half miles north of here. Residents moved near the railroad and the previous community came to be known as Old Mounds. In 1919, the school relocated as well, and soon the old settlement was entirely abandoned, as was the cemetery. Today, this burial ground is all that remains of Old Mounds, a testament to the pioneering farmers and ranchers of this area and the Hispanic families who lived and worked here. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006