Scrutchfield Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Out here in Bosque County, there's a quiet two-acre piece of ground that's been holding the county's stories since before most folks around here were born. This is Scrutchfield Cemetery, and the land it sits on goes all the way back to the M.

Boren survey of 1846. That's the ground beneath the ground, so to speak. The legal foundation of the whole place.

Now, the cemetery itself came into being as a public burial ground when Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield deeded those two acres to Bosque County in 1883. Deeded it. Gave it over.

Said, this is for everyone. That kind of generosity tends to outlast just about everything else a person does in their lifetime. The first burial, according to family records, was a little one.

Minnie, the infant daughter of Daniel and Carolyn Mabray Henderson. No legible stone remains to mark exactly when, but the family remembers. And then there's the earliest tombstone you can still read today.

It belongs to Alpheus C. Potts, six months old, born and died in 1885. Six months.

Some stories are short, and they still deserve to be told. Lowry H. Scrutchfield himself, born in 1824 and gone by 1900, rests here alongside his wife Nancy Proffit Scrutchfield, born 1835, died 1903.

And here's the part that takes a moment to sit with. His mother, Nancy Pool Scrutchfield Roberts, born in 1800, died in 1839, is interred here too. Her grave, along with that of another early settler named A.

J. Lewis, was re-interred here in the late twentieth century. Moved, carefully, reverently, brought back into the fold.

More than fifty identifiable graves now grace this cemetery, some marked, some not. Fifty souls, at least, maybe more. All of them out on that old Boren survey land, in Bosque County, under the Texas sky.

Lowry Scrutchfield gave two acres for the county. Turns out, two acres can hold a whole lot of history.

What the marker says

Located on two acres of the M. Boren survey of 1846, this cemetery was deeded to Bosque County for public burials by Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield in 1883. Family records indicate that Minnie, the infant daughter of Daniel and Carolyn Mabray Henderson, was the first to be buried on this site. The earliest legible tombstone is that of six-month-old Alpheus C. Potts, who was born and died in 1885. Lowry H. Scrutchfield (1824-1900), his wife Nancy Proffit Scrutchfield (1835-1903) and his mother Nancy Pool Scrutchfield Roberts (1800-1839) are all interred here. The graves of Nancy Scrutchfield Roberts and A. J. Lewis, another early settler, were re-interred here in the late 20th century. More than 50 identifiable graves, marked and unmarked, grace the cemetery. (1999)