Prairie Hill Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Prairie Hill Cemetery in Limestone County. Back in 1890, members of Prairie Hill Baptist Church put up a sanctuary on three acres of land. That land was donated by J.

R. and Medora Leathers, and you get the sense those two understood that a community needs more than just a roof to gather under. It needs ground to come home to. Sure enough, just four years later, in 1894, a portion of that acreage near the sanctuary was set aside for exactly that purpose.

A community cemetery, carved from the same land the church stood on. The first recorded burial was that of Eula Jane Howard, on June 29, 1894. A name.

A date. The beginning of something that would quietly grow for generations. Over the years the cemetery was enlarged, and the people who found their rest here tell quite a story all by themselves.

Area pioneer settlers and their descendants. Veterans of conflicts ranging from the Civil War all the way to Vietnam. That's a long reach of American history lying beneath those Limestone County skies.

Now, a place like that needs tending, and somebody stepped up. The Prairie Hill Cemetery Association was established in 1958 and chartered in 1975, and they're the ones who have kept it going. This marker was placed in 1994, a hundred years on from that first burial.

One hundred years from Eula Jane Howard to a marker bearing her name. That's not nothing. That's a community remembering who it is.

What the marker says

Prairie Hill Baptist Church members built a sanctuary here in 1890 on 3 acres donated by J. R. and Medora Leathers. A portion of the acreage near the sanctuary was set aside in 1894 to established this community cemetery. The first recorded burial was that of Eula Jane Howard on June 29, 1894. The Prairie Hill Cemetery Association, established in 1958 and chartered in 1975, maintains the cemetery which has been enlarged over the years. Interred here are area pioneer settlers and their descendants, and veterans of conflicts ranging from the Civil War to Vietnam. 1994