Pecan Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Pecan Cemetery, out in Erath County. Now, every cemetery has a story, and Pecan Cemetery's goes back to 1880. That's the year it all began, and the oldest marked grave tells you so right up front.

Little Horace F. Adams, born October 19, 1880, and gone by November 14 of that same year. Just a baby.

His parents, Isaac Adams, born in 1842 and living all the way to 1931, and Mary Adams, born in 1855 and passing in 1915, they're both out there too. A whole family, in one piece of ground. But here's where it gets interesting.

The earliest death date in the whole cemetery belongs to a man who isn't actually buried there. Daniel Turney, born in 1829 and lost in 1864, a Civil War casualty. His marker stands at his wife's grave site, but Turney himself is buried over in Tyler.

His family placed that memorial in the 1960s, so he'd have a presence alongside her. There's something quietly stubborn about that. A family that refused to let distance be the last word.

The cemetery served as the primary burial ground for the Purves Community, a community that grew up around a blacksmith shop owned by a man named James Purves. Communities have built themselves around stranger things, but a blacksmith shop has a kind of sense to it. You need iron shaped, you need a place to gather, and before long you've got a whole community with a name.

Friendship Baptist Church stood near the cemetery and served that community from 1884 until it disbanded in 1915. The building itself lasted a little longer, until 1922, when it was torn down. But here's the part worth savoring: the material wasn't wasted.

Those old boards and beams went into building a tabernacle right there at Pecan Cemetery. Funerals were held in that tabernacle. And on annual special days, families would gather inside it, taking refreshment while they worked in the cemetery grounds.

Mourning and memory and community labor, all under one roof built from the bones of a church. By 1961, the Pecan Cemetery Endowment Corporation was formed to provide perpetual care for the graveyard. Perpetual care.

That's a serious commitment, the kind you make when you understand that a cemetery isn't just where people end up. It's where a community keeps its word to the ones who came before. From a baby's grave in 1880, to a memorial for a soldier buried somewhere else, to a tabernacle built from a disbanded church, Pecan Cemetery in Erath County has been holding this community's story together for a long, long time.

What the marker says

The Pecan Cemetery traces its history to 1880. The oldest marked grave is that of Horace F. Adams (October 19-November 14, 1880), son of Isaac (1842-1931) and Mary (1855-1915) Adams, who are also buried in the historic graveyard. A memorial marker for Civil War casualty Daniel Turney (1829-1864) bears the earliest death date, although he is actually buried in Tyler. His family placed the memorial at his wife's grave site in the 1960s. The cemetery contains a number of 19th-century graves. It was the primary burial ground for residents of the Purves Community, which grew up around a blacksmith shop owned by James Purves. Friendship Baptist Church, located near the cemetery, served the community from 1884 until it disbanded in 1915. The building was torn down in 1922 and the material was used to build a tabernacle at Pecan Cemetery. Funerals were held in the tabernacle, and on annual special days families gathered there for refreshment while working in the cemetery. The Pecan Cemetery Endowment Corporation was formed in 1961 to provide perpetual care for the graveyard. (1992)