Perry Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Perry Cemetery, out in Harris County. Pull over if you want the full story, because this one goes back a good while. The earliest marked burial in this cemetery belongs to Charles B.

Grant, who died in 1878. Charles was the son of a physician, Dr. James W.

Grant, who had once owned land in the southern part of the T.K. Wheeler Survey. In time, Dr.

Grant and his wife Mary would come to rest here as well, not far from the boy they'd lost first. Now the cemetery itself takes its name from another family entirely. Thomas and Drucilla Perry, she born a Dowdell, were early landowners on this ground.

And when the Perrys sold off the northern half of the Habermacher Survey in 1886, they didn't just hand over the deed and walk away. They stipulated, right there in the transaction, that the existing graveyard be preserved, along with one and a half acres set aside for it. The buyers, Christian and Caroline Rumpel, sometimes recorded as Rumbel, agreed to those terms.

Caroline Rumpel died in 1903 and was buried here herself, among the people whose resting place she and Christian had promised to protect. After her death, Christian sold the property. Before he left Texas, he added an additional acre to the cemetery.

That was his parting act. The cemetery had been in use by the surrounding community since the late 1870s, and family names gathered here over the generations include Anderson, Grant, Franklin, Hargrave, McCracken, Park, Perry, West, and Williams. Veterans are buried here.

Community leaders. Families that go back to when this land was new to settlement. And then there's the section the marker calls a strangers' rest.

A place set apart for those with no family plot here, no deep roots in the community, people passing through or simply unknown. Somebody made sure there was room for them too. Descendants are still being buried in Perry Cemetery to this day.

Some cemeteries hold a community's memory. This one kept making space for it.

What the marker says

Perry Cemetery The first marked burial at the Perry Cemetery is that of Charles B. Grant (d. 1878), son of physician James W. Grant who once owned land in the southern part of the T.K. Wheeler Survey. Dr. Grant and his wife, Mary, are also buried here. Thomas and Drucilla (Dowdell) Perry were early landowners here, and it is from them that the cemetery takes its name. When they sold the northern half of the Habermacher Survey in 1886 to Christian and Caroline Rumpel (also Rumbel), they stipulated that the existing graveyard be preserved, along with one and a half acres. After Caroline's death and burial here in 1903, Christian sold the property, adding an additional acre to the cemetery, and left Texas. The cemetery has been in use by the community's residents since the late 1870s. Family names include Anderson, Grant, Franklin, Hargrave, Mccracken, Park, Perry, West and Williams. Descendants continue to be buried here, among the many veterans, community leaders and families. Cemetery features include family plots as well as a strangers' rest, where those not associated with the larger community or with families interred here could be buried. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002