DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling past McLennan County now, and if you blink you might miss what's left of a place that used to be something — a place called Perry. The Old Perry Cemetery is just about all that remains, and cemeteries have a way of holding a story long after everything else has blown away.
And brother, something did blow away. But let's start at the beginning. This ground was established to serve the pioneer settlers of the Perry community, folks putting down roots in hard country, building the kind of life that takes real nerve.
The first burial here was that of Jane Leach — a schoolteacher — who died in 1854. Think about that for a moment. A schoolteacher.
Out here. 1854. Perry had itself stores, plural, a gin, a school, a union church, and a post office. It was a real place, a going concern, the kind of community that makes you think it'll be around forever.
Then came 1873. A destructive storm hit Perry, and when the dust and wreckage settled, the residents made a decision — they picked up and moved, two miles east, to a new townsite they called, naturally enough, New Perry. Now you might think that's the end of the movin', but you would be wrong.
Because in 1881, when the Santa Fe Rail lines were completed to the area, the settlement relocated again — this time two miles southwest, to what is now the present site of Moody. The railroad had a way of redrawing maps whether towns wanted it or not. Storm moved 'em once.
Steel rails moved 'em again. And old Perry? Gone.
Except for this cemetery, sitting quiet at the original site, keeping watch over ground that Jane Leach was the first to call her resting place back in 1854. The community moved on twice. She never did.
Neither did this ground.
What the marker says
This cemetery was established to serve the pioneer settlers of the Perry community. The first burial her was that of Jane Leach,a schoolteacher who died in 1854. Perry was the site of several stores, a gin, school, union church, and a post office. Following a destructive 1873 storm, the residents moved to the townsite of New Perry (2 mi E). The settlement was relocated at the present site of Moody (2 mi SW) in 1881 when Santa Fe Rail lines were completed to the area. Only this cemetery remains at the original site of the Perry Community.