Prater Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. Now, way up in the north end of Jefferson County, there's a small patch of ground that holds a whole lot of story. It sits in what used to be called the Rosedale community, and it answers to the name Prater Cemetery.

The whole thing traces back to a man named Edwin Prater. In 1894, Edwin bought half an acre of land for ten dollars. Ten dollars.

And he didn't buy it from a stranger. He bought it from his own daughter Theodosia and her husband, John Jackson Ballard. The deed spelled out exactly what that ground was for, and the language leaves no wiggle room.

It was to be used as a grave yard, those are the marker's own words, for himself, his children, his grandchildren, and all his legal descendants, forever. That word forever has a weight to it when you're standing on land this old. But here's the thing.

The land was already doing that work before Edwin ever signed the papers. Travelers who died passing through the area were already resting there. The ground had a purpose before it had a deed.

The first family burial came in 1888, before Edwin even made the purchase official. A little girl named Seawillow Ballard, his infant granddaughter, was laid to rest there. That name, Seawillow, you don't forget it.

And she was the first of the family, though not the last, not by a long stretch. The cemetery grew as the family grew, and it became the resting place mainly for the Prater, Collier, Ballard, and Odom families. Edwin's son-in-law John Jackson Ballard, a Confederate veteran, was buried there in 1903.

Edwin Prater himself was interred in 1905. Then came another son-in-law, John Collier, also a Confederate veteran, a man who ran Collier's ferry on the Neches River, buried in 1918. And a third Confederate veteran, Elijah Alexander Blackshear, a Ballard in-law, was laid to rest in 1927.

The most recent burial the marker records is a young one. Samuel David Hamner, Jr., Edwin Prater's infant great-great-grandson, was buried there in 1952. The line from Seawillow to Samuel spans generations, all of them under that same forever Edwin wrote into the deed.

Then the cemetery went quiet, and the land did what land does in east Texas. It grew over. It got swallowed up.

And it might have stayed lost if not for a local boy who came across it in 1968. He found it, and then years later, in 1976, he and Beaumont Boy Scout Troop 181 went back together and cleaned it up, pulling it out of the overgrowth and putting it back in front of people's eyes. Today, Prater Cemetery holds fifteen marked graves.

The number of unmarked ones, nobody can say. That unknown count is its own kind of reminder, that not every story gets a stone, but the ground remembers anyway. Edwin Prater paid ten dollars for that half acre and wrote the word forever into the deed.

Out in Rosedale, it looks like forever is keeping its end of the bargain.

What the marker says

Prater Cemetery is a small family cemetery in what was once known as the Rosedale community of north Jefferson County. Edwin Prater, founder of the cemetery, bought a half acre of land for $10 from his daughter Theodosia and her husband John Jackson Ballard in 1894 to be “used as a grave yard for himself, his children, his grandchildren and all his legal descendants forever.” The site was already in use as a burial ground for travelers who died while passing through the area. The first family burial was that of Prater’s infant granddaughter, Seawillow Ballard, in 1888. The cemetery grew in size as Prater’s family increased and was used mainly by the Prater, Collier, Ballard and Odom families. Confederate veteran John Jackson Ballard, Prater’s son-in-law, was buried in 1903, and Edwin Prater was interred in 1905. Confederate veteran John Collier, Prater’s son-in-law and operator of Collier’s ferry on the Neches River, was buried in 1918. A third confederate veteran, Elijah Alexander Blackshear, a Ballard in-law, was laid to rest in 1927. The most recent burial is that of Prater’s infant great-great-grandson, Samuel David Hamner, Jr., in 1952. The overgrown cemetery was discovered by a local boy in 1968, and he and Beaumont Boy Scout Troop 181 worked to clean up the cemetery in 1976, creating public awareness of the historic site. Today, Prater Cemetery contains fifteen marked graves and an unknown number of unmarked ones, and reminds visitors of a pioneering Jefferson County family. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2009