Prairie Mound Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, friends, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out on the rolling land between Argyle and Justin, there's a piece of ground that has been holding the memory of this country longer than most folks realize. Prairie Mound Cemetery, they call it, and the stories buried there go back to a time when this whole stretch of Denton County was still being figured out by the people who chose to put down roots in it.

Now, we know the burial ground was in use by 1882; that's when the adjoining property was deeded to the Prairie Mound Methodist Episcopal Church, South. So the church and the cemetery grew up side by side, the way those things tended to do out on the Texas frontier. You built a place to worship, and not far away, you set aside a place to lay your people to rest.

The earliest marked grave belongs to Edgar Myers. He was the son of J. E. and M.

J. Myers, and he lived from 1875 to 1878. Three years old.

You stand at a small marker like that and the whole weight of pioneer life settles right on your shoulders. These were people who came out here with hope and hard work, and sometimes (too often) with grief they hadn't planned for. Around that same era, in 1878, a public school was organized nearby.

The community was taking shape: a church, a school, a cemetery. Three anchors of a place that intended to last. And for a good while, it did.

But time has a way of reshuffling things. Church services were discontinued before 1920. The school, which had served the area for decades, was consolidated with neighboring districts in the 1940s.

One by one, the old institutions wound down. Then came 1961, and the original sanctuary was removed from the site. Seemed like it might be the end of the story for that little piece of ground.

But here's the thing about places that have held that many people's memories: they don't just quietly disappear. Shortly after that sanctuary came down, the Lark Heath Memorial Chapel was dedicated. A new chapter, rising right where the old one had stood.

Many pioneer settlers of the Argyle-Justin area are buried here. That line on the marker is simple, but don't let the simplicity fool you. That's generations of families, of people who shaped this corner of Denton County, resting in ground they once helped break and build.

This marker was donated by the J. Heath Family and the Argyle Centennial Committee, folks who understood that remembering a place is itself a way of honoring it. Prairie Mound Cemetery.

It outlasted the church. It outlasted the school. And it's still out there, quietly keeping the names of the people who made this country what it is.

What the marker says

This burial ground was in use by 1882 when adjoining property was deeded to the Prairie Mound Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The earliest marked grave here is that of Edgar Myers (1875-1878), the son of J. E. and M. J. Myers. Church services were discontinued before 1920, and a public school, organized nearby in 1878, was consolidated with neighboring districts in the 1940s. Shortly after the original sanctuary was removed from the site in 1961, the Lark Heath Memorial Chapel was dedicated. Many pioneer settlers of the Argyle-Justin area are buried here. (1981) Incise on back: Donated by J. Heath Family, Argyle Centennial Committee