Preskitt Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Preskitt Cemetery out in Wise County. Now, some places earn their history the loud way, with battles or booms or famous names. But Preskitt Cemetery earned its quietly, one family at a time, going all the way back to the 1870s and 1880s, when the first farm owners were putting down roots in this community.

Let me walk you through it. In April 1885, the land around this site was deeded to the trustees of the Lee School Community. One of those trustees was a man named M.

W. Preskitt. Then, just the following year, in August, the Lee School trustees turned around and deeded half that parcel to County Judge W.

W. Brady, specifically for a burial ground. So this ground was set aside with intention, with paperwork, with community purpose.

The earliest marked grave belongs to an infant named Pearl Hobbs, born and died in June 1890. That's the kind of fact that stops you cold, if you let it. A whole life contained in a single month, and yet someone made sure Pearl Hobbs was remembered, marked, accounted for.

That matters. Among the families resting here, you'll find Bramlett, Burns, Haynes, Hilton, Little, Pound, Reeves, Taylor, and Ware. Pioneer families, the marker calls them, and that word carries weight out here in Wise County.

One of the men interred here is James W. Haynes, an early school trustee and a Union Army veteran. He is not alone in that distinction.

Many other military veterans are buried on this ground as well. For a time, the cemetery was associated with a Baptist Church that stood nearby. That church was torn down about 1930, and the congregation's footprint faded.

But the cemetery stayed. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, there were 172 known graves on the property, 27 of them unmarked. Twenty-seven people whose names the ground is keepin' to itself.

That's the thing about a place like Preskitt Cemetery. The paperwork starts in 1885, the first marked grave appears in 1890, families pile up across the decades, a church rises and falls, and still the land holds them all. Named and unnamed alike.

What the marker says

The land around this site was deeded to the trustees of the Lee School Community, one of whom was M. W. Preskitt, in April 1885. In August of the following year, the Lee School trustees deeded half that parcel to County Judge W. W. Brady for a burial ground. The earliest marked grave in the cemetery is that of infant Pearl Hobbs, who was born and died in June 1890. The families buried in the cemetery are among the first farm owners and families living in the community in the 1870s and 1880s. Early school trustee James W. Haynes, a Union Army veteran, is interred here, as are many other military veterans. The cemetery was once associated with a Baptist Church, which was torn down about 1930. At the dawn of the 21st century there were 172 known graves, 27 unmarked, on the property. (2000) Text of supplemental plate: Pioneer families represented in the Preskitt Cemetery include Bramlett, Burns, Haynes, Hilton, Little, Pound, Reeves, Taylor and Ware.