Plainview Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in western Denton County, there's a patch of ground that's been holdin' the memory of a community most folks have never heard of, and that's exactly why it matters. This is the story of Plainview Cemetery, and the people who made that name mean something.

It starts, the way so many Texas stories do, with families movin' in. Around 1878, the Kimbrough families came rolling in from Bellville, Tennessee, Gideon Kimbrough, born in 1833, and William Kimbrough, born in 1824, and the Plainview community began to take shape right there in western Denton County. Now when families settle, the first thing they need is a place to learn and a place to worship.

So a one-room school building went up. Then in 1894, a Baptist Sunday school started meeting in that same building, one room doing double duty, the way frontier buildings always seemed to. By 1896, the Plainview Baptist Church had formally organized, and they built themselves a proper church on land donated by a man named C.R.

Moreman. A community with a school and a church, that's a community with roots. But roots, eventually, lead underground in another sense entirely.

In 1898, a plot of land right next to that church was purchased from the estate of James B. Walker, born in 1848 and gone that same year, 1898. And here's where the story turns quiet for a moment.

James B. Walker was the first burial in that cemetery. The very man whose estate sold the land became the first to rest in it.

That's the kind of thing you sit with for a second. By the time 1900 arrived, at least five people from the area had already been laid to rest there. And then the early 1900s brought something that swept through not just Plainview, but the entire nation, a influenza epidemic that filled cemeteries from coast to coast.

Plainview Cemetery saw a large increase in burials during those years, each one a story that mostly went unrecorded anywhere but here. Walk through what remains today and you'll find marble headstones and cement markers carved with biblical scripture, masonic markings, woodmen seals, and military headstones. Generations of the founding families are there, teachers, preachers, and veterans all sharing the same ground.

The Plainview Cemetery Association keeps the place maintained, which is no small thing when you consider that the Baptist Church and this cemetery are now the only remnants of what was once a flourishing farming community. Everything else has faded back into the Texas prairie. But the graves remain.

And the graves, as the marker says, provide the record, of who was here, who built something, and who didn't leave even after they were gone.

What the marker says

Located in western Denton County, Plainview Cemetery served as a burial ground for early settlers in the area. The Plainview community began around 1878 when the families of Gideon Kimbrough (1833-1923) and William Kimbrough (1824-1912) and their families arrived from Bellville, Tennessee. As the community grew, the need for a school was recognized and a one-room school building was erected. In 1894, a Baptist Sunday school began to meet in the building. The Plainview Baptist Church formed in 1896 and built a church on land donated by C.R. Moreman. In 1898, a plot of land adjoining the church was purchased from the estate of James B. Walker (1848-1898) to be used as a cemetery. Mr. Walker was the first burial in the cemetery. It became the only cemetery for the Plainview community. At least five people from the area were buried in the cemetery prior to 1900. A large increase in burials took place in the early 1900s because of a national influenza epidemic. The cemetery has a variety of marble and cement headstones marked with biblical scripture, masonic markings, woodmen seals and military headstones. Many founding families of the community have gravesites in the cemetery as well as generations of their descendants. Maintained by the Plainview Cemetery Association, the graves provide a record of the settlers of the area, including teachers, preachers and veterans. The Plainview Baptist Church and the cemetery are the only remnants of this once flourishing farming community.