Old Palestine Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker record on this one. Now settle in, because some stories start with land, and the land tells you everything you need to know. Back in 1853, Henry and Helena Berryman, Helena being born a Dill, deeded four acres right here at this site to the trustees of the Old Palestine Baptist Church.

Four acres. A promise made in soil. Seven years passed, and by the time Helena came back to add to that gift, Henry was gone.

A widow now, she gave two more acres to the cause. And here is the part worth sitting with: on those two acres, a schoolhouse and a community graveyard already were in existence. Already.

Somebody had been burying their people here before the paperwork caught up. Records indicate stones once marked interments as early as 1861. Many early graves, though, are undocumented.

The earth knows names the ledgers never kept. Then came 1862, and the marker names the names we do have. James and Martha Boyd.

Their son Benjamin. Their daughter Martha Donegan. And an infant granddaughter, Lara Donegan.

All of them died that same year, 1862. A family, nearly a whole branch of it, gone inside twelve months. The marker does not explain it.

It does not have to. The weight of those names lined up together does the explaining. The cemetery was enlarged in later years, more land coming in through additional donations, the ground growing to hold what the years kept asking it to hold.

Today it stands as a reminder, the marker says, of the area's pioneer heritage. And standing here, reading those names, you believe it. Some reminders don't need much ornament at all.

What the marker says

Henry and Helena (Dill) Berryman deeded four acres of land at this site to trustees of the Old Palestine Baptist Church in 1853. Seven years later Helena, by then a widow, gave an additional two acres on which a schoolhouse and community graveyard already were in existence. Many early graves are undocumented, but records indicate stones once marked interments that occurred as early as 1861. Among the pioneer settlers interred here are James and Martha Boyd, their son Benjamin, daughter Martha Donegan, and infant granddaughter Lara Donegan, all of whom died in 1862. Enlarged in later years with additional land donations, the cemetery stands as a reminder of the area's pioneer heritage. (2001)