Pleasant Grove Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Pleasant Grove Cemetery, out in Bastrop County. Now settle in, because this one reaches back further than most folks might expect. Way back before the Civil War was even a memory, before 1860 had fully come and gone, there was already a log structure standing near this very site.

One building doing double duty, as both a school and a church, the way communities out on the Texas frontier tended to make do with what they had. That's the seed of the story. Then comes 1871, and a man named E.E.

Smith sold land to the trustees of the Pleasant Grove School, and the whole settlement started to take shape. Farming families, ranching families, putting down roots in the blackland prairie. By 1890, that school was serving fifty-one students.

A real community had grown up around it, and nearby, quietly, the cemetery had developed too. Now here's where the story gets a little tall in the best possible way. In 1908, the folks of Pleasant Grove built themselves a two-story Woodmen of the World lodge.

Two stories. And they used that first floor as a school. Then 1924 rolls around, and they razed the whole building.

But they didn't waste a single plank. They took that lumber and built themselves a brand new schoolhouse. That is the kind of practical, stubborn, make-it-last thinking that keeps a community alive for generations.

The school itself kept going all the way until 1949, when Pleasant Grove consolidated into the Elgin District. And then in 1967, the Pleasant Grove Cemetery Association purchased that former schoolhouse, keeping the land in the community's hands. These days, the burial ground is the primary connection left to the Pleasant Grove community.

Everything else has changed or moved on, but the cemetery remains. And here's the part that really makes you stop and think. Some of the unmarked burials in that ground predate even the earliest marked grave, which dates to 1871.

The earliest birth year found on any gravestone belongs to a man named Clairbourn Scroggins, born in 1799. Think about that. A man born in 1799 now rests in this quiet corner of Bastrop County.

And he is not alone in the depth of history out there. Military veterans are buried in this cemetery, from the Civil War all the way to the present. Generations of service, generations of sacrifice, all gathered in one place that almost nobody drives past anymore.

Pleasant Grove the community may have faded, but Pleasant Grove Cemetery is still here, still holding the memory of every one of them.

What the marker says

By 1860, a log structure near this site served as a school and church. In 1871, E.E. Smith sold land to trustees of the Pleasant Grove School. The farming and ranching settlement of Pleasant Grove grew, and by 1890, the school served 51 students; the community’s cemetery developed nearby. Residents built a two-story Woodmen of the World lodge in 1908 and used the first floor as a school. After razing the building in 1924, they reused the lumber for a new schoolhouse. Pleasant Grove School consolidated into the Elgin District in 1949, and the Pleasant Grove Cemetery Association purchased the former schoolhouse in 1967. Today, the burial ground remains the primary connection to the Pleasant Grove community. Although some of the many unmarked burials in the cemetery predate it, the earliest marked grave dates to 1871. The earliest birth year found on a gravestone is that of Clairbourn Scroggins, born in 1799. Among those buried here are military veterans of conflicts from the Civil War to the present. The cemetery is a link to their memory and to the history of Pleasant Grove. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004