Prairie Grove Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, this comes straight from the official marker at Prairie Grove Cemetery, and the marker doesn't let a single detail go to waste. Out in Alief, there's a patch of ground that holds a whole community inside it. Only a few African American families lived in that area in the nineteenth century, working as farm laborers or tenant farmers.

Not many, not yet. But communities have a way of finding each other, and in the early twentieth century, more families came. The David and Parthenia Outley family arrived from Fort Bend by 1910.

S.B. Burleson, who went by Shorter, came too, along with Eddie and Will Garmond, and others. And when a community gathers, the first thing it needs is a place to gather.

Oral tradition tells it this way: Prairie Grove Missionary Baptist Church first met in the Burleson home. Right there in somebody's house, people pulled together what they had. And when it came time to give the church its name, Mamie Burleson was instrumental in that naming.

Some things get carried forward by a single person's conviction, and this was one of them. In October 1910, a man named L.P. Scarborough sold this land to church trustees S.B.

Burleson and Will and Eddie Garmond. The congregation had a home now, not just a name. Then in 1921 and 1922, they built it: a white frame sanctuary, clean and plain and theirs.

That building did double duty, too, serving as a schoolhouse from 1927 all the way to 1937. A church that taught its children. That's a community with its eyes on the future.

The 1940s brought harder times. The congregation dwindled, and eventually the building was razed. Gone.

But before any of that, early Black families in the area had been using other cemeteries nearby, and at some point they established this burial ground right next to the church. About fifty known graves have been surveyed on that 1.35 acre property, along with several unmarked ones. The earliest known burials the marker names are Melissa Outley in 1940, Leo Bryant Jr. in 1941, Lillian Garmond Jackson in 1942, and Lucy Truitt in 1943.

But those unmarked graves, the ones without dates, without names we can read today, they may predate all of those. The ground was receiving people before the records caught up. Buried here are pioneer families, Freemasons, and military veterans who served in World War II and the Vietnam Conflict.

The whole arc of a community's life, pressed into 1.35 acres. And then, 1967. The church was gone, but the descendants of the founders weren't finished.

They formed the Prairie Grove Cemetery Association to maintain and preserve this burial ground. That's the thing about a community that builds something together. The building can come down.

The association endures. The once rural cemetery is still in use today, by descendants of those early families and others. The farm laborers and tenant farmers of the nineteenth century, the Outleys and Burlesons and Garmonds of the twentieth, the veterans and the Freemasons and the children taught in that white frame building, they're all still there, held in 1.35 acres of Alief.

Waiting to be remembered.

What the marker says

This site recalls a historic African American church, school and cemetery in Alief. Only a few African Americans lived in the area in the nineteenth century, working as farm laborers or tenant farmers. More families came in the early twentieth century, including the David and Parthenia Outley family from Fort Bend by 1910. S.B. (Shorter) Burleson, Eddie and Will Garmond, and others arrived soon after. Oral tradition tells that Prairie Grove Missionary Baptist Church first met in the Burleson home; Mamie Burleson was instrumental in naming the church. In October 1910, L.P. Scarborough sold this land to church trustees S.B. Burleson and Will and Eddie Garmond, in 1921-22, the congregation built a white frame sanctuary that also served as a schoolhouse from 1927 to 1937. The congregation dwindled in the 1940s, and the building was later razed. Early black families used other area cemeteries before establishing this burial ground adjacent to the church. About fifty known graves have been surveyed on the 1.35 acre property, along with several unmarked graves. The earliest known burials are those of Melissa Outley (1940), Leo Bryant, Jr. (1941), Lillian Garmond Jackson (1942) and Lucy Truitt (1943). Unmarked graves, however, may predate these. Pioneer families, Freemasons and military veterans from World War II and the Vietnam Conflict are buried here. Descendants of church founders formed Prairie Grove Cemetery Association in 1967 to maintain and preserve the burial ground. The once rural cemetery is still in use by descendants of early families and others. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2006