Olive Branch Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it: the story of Olive Branch Cemetery in Wise County, Texas. Now settle in, because this one starts the way so many Texas stories do: with a wagon train, and a loss nobody was ready for. Sometime in the early 1870s, a young girl died on a wagon train passing through this part of Wise County.

No permanent cemetery existed here yet. But four area settlers (H. H.

Bradford, B. P. Cox, J.

C. Cartwright, and J. C.

Weaver) they didn't let that stand. Those four men donated the property right then and there, so that girl would have a proper place to rest. That is how this ground became a burial ground.

The earliest marked grave belongs to Maria B. Smith, born 1805, died 1875. She's the oldest name we can still read on a stone out here.

In the 1890s, the community built a sanctuary just north of the burial ground; a Methodist Episcopal Church, giving this stretch of Wise County a little more permanence, a little more weight. But the land had its own plans. Declining soil conditions pushed families away, one by one, until the congregation simply couldn't hold itself together anymore.

The church went inactive. The chapel itself was removed by 1914. The land that once drew settlers in had slowly let them go.

But here is the thing about Olive Branch Cemetery: it remains in use. That ground those four men gave for one girl on a wagon train has been keeping faith with this county for a century and a half. Some gifts outlast everything built around them.

What the marker says

The first burial at this site occurred in the early 1870s. Area settlers H. H. Bradford, B. P. Cox, J. C. Cartwright, and J. C. Weaver, donated the property for the interment of a young girl who had died on a wagon train. The earliest marked grave is that of Maria B. Smith (1805-1875). During the 1890s, a sanctuary was built north of the burial ground for a Methodist Episcopal Church. As declining soil conditions caused families to move from the area, the congregation became inactive. The chapel was removed by 1914, but the Olive Branch Cemetery remains in use.