Old Winnsboro Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Old Winnsboro Cemetery tells it this way, and I'll do my best to honor it. Now, most cemeteries can tell you exactly when they got started. This one can't.

The first burial here, the very first soul laid to rest in what became one of the oldest cemeteries in East Texas, was an accident victim. Date unknown. Think about that for a second.

Somebody's story ended before anybody thought to write it down. That's a particular kind of old. The earliest gravestone we can actually read belongs to Andrew Vannoy, born 1812, died 1858.

Vannoy was co-owner, along with a Dr. Joseph McGee, of one of the first sawmills in the area. These were men who were building something out here, shaping East Texas timber into possibility, and this ground received them.

Members of the Cook family rest here too. The Cooks were donors of the Winnsboro townsite itself, and they probably gave the land for this very cemetery. Probably.

Even the marker hedges just a little on that one, and I respect a story that doesn't claim more than it knows. But the names and the lives that followed. Three pioneer ministers.

Eight early-day doctors. Industrial leaders. A patriot who fought under General George Custer.

And then the veterans, layered through American history like rings in one of those old East Texas pines. Civil War veterans. Spanish-American War veterans.

Men and women who lived through World War I and World War II. All of them finding their way, eventually, to this same patch of ground in Wood County. One cemetery.

One accident victim with no date. And everything that came after.

What the marker says

One of oldest cemeteries in East Texas. First burial (date unknown) was an accident victim. The earliest gravestone belongs to Andrew Vannoy (1812-58), co-owner with Dr. Joseph McGee of one of first sawmills in area. Buried here also are members of the Cook family who were donors of Winnsboro townsite and probably gave land for this cemetery. The many important persons interred here include industrial leaders, three pioneer ministers, eight early-day doctors, a patriot who fought under Gen. George Custer, veterans of Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II. (1971)