DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Proffitt Cemetery has to say — and friend, it's worth slowing down for. Sometime around 1862, the Robert Smith Proffitt family made their way into this corner of Young County and put down roots. Out of that family came a son — John Proffitt, born in 1846 — who would go on to amass large land-holdings and build a gin and other businesses.
The community growing up around all that activity took on the family name: Proffitt. At its height, it had homes, a post office, a school, retail businesses, a Methodist church, and a Baptist church. A real town, carved out of Texas frontier.
But the land didn't give itself over easy. On July 17, 1867, three young men were killed in an Indian raid near this very site. Three lives, gone.
They were buried together — a common grave, on John Proffitt's land, about one mile south of town. That was the first burial in what would become the Proffitt Cemetery. Three young men, laid in the earth together, and a graveyard began.
What followed over the decades tells the whole hard story of frontier life. The cemetery holds both marked and unmarked graves of area pioneers. And if you walk among them, you'll notice something that never gets easier to reckon with — the numerous interments of infants and children.
The marker doesn't dress it up. It calls it what it was: the often harsh conditions of frontier life. The largest number of burials in this cemetery came between 1910 and 1920, and among those are many victims of the influenza epidemic that swept through during the World War I era.
A war taking lives abroad, a sickness taking them at home — and both of them showing up here, in the same ground. The cemetery also holds veterans. Men who served in the Civil War, in World War I, and in World War II.
Generations of service, generations of loss, all resting in Young County soil. Maintained by a cemetery association, the Proffitt Cemetery stands today as a memorial to Young County pioneers. It began with three young men killed on a July afternoon in 1867.
Everything that came after — the town, the community, the history — all of it is marked here, some with stones, some without. But marked just the same.
What the marker says
Members of the Robert Smith Proffitt family came to this area about 1862 and established homes. A son, John Proffitt (1846-1925), amassed large land-holdings and built a gin and other businesses. The developing community was named Proffitt. At its height it boasted homes, a post office, school, retail businesses, a Methodist church, and Baptist church. On July 17, 1867, three young men were killed in an Indian raid near this site. They were buried in a common grave on John Proffitt's land about one mile south of town. Theirs was the first burial in the community graveyard which became know as the Proffitt Cemetery. The cemetery contains both marked and unmarked graves of area pioneers. The numerous interments of infants and children illustrate the often harsh conditions of frontier life. The largest number of burials occurred in the years between 1910 and 1920, and include many victims of the World War I-era influenza epidemic. Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Maintained by a cemetery association, this historic graveyard stands as memorial to Young County pioneers.