Pleasant Grove Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is the story of Pleasant Grove Cemetery, out in Coryell County. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with soldiers.

The 1850 U.S. census counted 94 of them at Fort Gates, and among those names you find one Hugh Sheridan, Irish-born, a long way from wherever home used to be. Fort Gates closed in March of 1853, and Sheridan didn't wander far. He and other families settled in along the Leon River lowlands, staked out their farms, and started putting down roots.

They called the community Pleasant Grove. The marker says it was likely named for the groves of post oak trees scattered through the area, and if you've ever stood in the shade of a post oak on a hot Texas afternoon, you understand why somebody would name a whole community after them. The first landowners were a roll call worth remembering: Hugh Sheridan, Nimrod Brown, William B.

Powell, and the Worthington, Traller, Cummings, Price, and Hall families. That's the founding stock of Pleasant Grove, right there. Nimrod Brown had a son named John Marshall Brown, and in November of 1877, Coryell County Judge S.

B. Raby appointed that young man trustee of Pleasant Grove School District No. 26. Six years later, in 1883, William B.

Powell donated land for a school, and he put one condition on the gift: religious services had to be permitted in the building. A practical man, Powell. By 1902, that school was enrolling 41 students.

The community was lively. Pleasant Grove residents attended the farmers education and co-operative union over in Mound in 1904, and by 1908 they had themselves a democratic club. But school districts, like rivers, have a way of merging.

In 1910, Pleasant Grove School consolidated with Farmers Branch and Branchville to form the Ewing school district, and that was the end of the school as its own thing. Now here's where the story turns quieter, and older, and more permanent. On the farm of Walter T.

Worthington, the community established a burial ground. The earliest dated gravestone belongs to a woman named Catherine Janes, who died in 1867 at age 74. Dozens of burials had already accumulated by 1899, when Worthington made it official with a deed.

He conveyed two acres, and the words he chose are worth quoting slow: "to be used by Pleasant Grove community as a graveyard forever." And then, in the same breath, he sold them the fence already standing on the north side of the tract, for twenty-five dollars. Forever, and also twenty-five dollars for the fence. That's a very Texas document.

Among those buried there are military veterans stretching from the Civil War all the way through World War II. And then there is this: a gravestone for one Joseph H. Taller, bearing the inscription that he was born at sea in 1832.

Born at sea. Not in a county, not in a country. Somewhere on the water, in 1832.

You don't see that every day. Fort Hood provides maintenance for the cemetery now, and the marker makes clear it is still active. The school is gone.

The community as a going concern is gone. But the cemetery remains, and the marker calls it the last remaining historic resource of the Pleasant Grove community. The post oaks are long since scattered.

The 94 soldiers at Fort Gates are long since scattered. But Catherine Janes, and the Civil War veterans, and the man born at sea in 1832, they are all still out there in Coryell County, on two acres deeded to the community forever, fence included.

What the marker says

The 1850 U.S. census lists 94 soldiers at Fort Gates, including Irish-born Hugh Sheridan. After Fort Gates closed in March 1853, Sheridan and other families settled on farms in the Leon River lowlands. They established the Pleasant Grove community, likely named for the groves of post oak trees scattered in the area. Sheridan, Nimrod Brown, William B. Powell, and the Worthington, Traller, Cummings, Price and Hall families were among the first landowners. John Marshall Brown, son of Nimrod Brown, was appointed trustee of Pleasant Grove School District No. 26 by Coryell County Judge S. B. Raby in Nov. 1877. William B. Powell donated land for a school in 1883, stipulating that religious services be permitted in the building. The school enrolled 41 students in 1902. Pleasant Grove residents attended the 1904 farmers education and co-operative union in Mound, and had a democratic club in 1908. The school operated until 1910, when Pleasant Grove, Farmers Branch and Branchville schools consolidated to form the Ewing school district. A community burial ground was established on the farm of Walter T. Worthington. The earliest dated gravestone is for Catherine Janes, who died in 1867 at age 74. Dozens of burials had occurred by 1899, when Worthington deeded two acres "to be used by Pleasant Grove community as a graveyard forever and I also sell to said community the fence as it now stands on the north side of this tract of land, for $25.00." Notable burials include military veterans from the Civil War through World War II, and an unusual inscription for Joseph H. Taller noting he was born at sea in 1832. Fort Hood provides maintenance for this still-active cemetery, which is the last remaining historic resource of the Pleasant Grove community.