Shady Grove Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Shady Grove Cemetery in Shelby County tells it like this, and I'm just passing it along. Now, most cemeteries start with a deed. A piece of paper, a handshake, somebody drawing lines on a map.

Shady Grove Cemetery did not start that way. It started with a woman named Anna Sparks Ramsey, buried here in September of 1878, a full thirteen months before anybody got around to making this ground official. Here's the thing about that.

Her husband, George Frank Washington Ramsey, had already been buried over in nearby Bobo. That would have been the natural place for her, too. But the roads were impassable at the time of her death.

Impassable. So the community made a decision, and Anna Sparks Ramsey became the first to rest in this ground, on land that wouldn't even be deeded as a cemetery until October of 1879. When that deed finally came, it came in two halves.

S.C. Mathis gave one acre. James C.

Rhodes gave another. Together they made a two-acre tract intended for three purposes: a community burial ground, a school, and a Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The trustees receiving that donation were T.P.

Ramsey, J.I. Ramsey, and S.C. Mathis himself, one of the very men doing the giving.

The church went up first on the west side of the cemetery, close to a spring. And for a while, that was just fine. Then the sanctuary burned.

Not a quiet ending, not a graceful one. It burned. So the community built a new one, this time closer to the burial ground, under large oak trees.

And the community kept showing up. The Cammack family donated a protective fence. Families named Baker, Billingsley, Childs, Collins, Franks, Ramsey, and Rhodes all had a hand in the upkeep over the years.

The names on the headstones tell you who lived out here: veterans, farmers, teachers, preachers, and others the marker is careful enough to call simply that, others. Shady Grove Cemetery began before it was supposed to exist, because a woman needed to be buried and the roads wouldn't allow anything else. Everything that followed, the deed, the church, the fence, the oak trees, grew up around that first September grave.

Sometimes a place picks its own beginning.

What the marker says

Shady Grove Cemetery Shady Grove Cemetery began with the interment of Anna Sparks Ramsey in September 1878, 13 months before a two-acre tract of land here was deeded as a cemetery. Although Ramsey's husband, George Frank Washington Ramsey, had been buried in nearby Bobo, roads were impassable at the time of her death, so she was buried here. S.C. Mathis and James C. Rhodes each deeded one acre of land in October 1879 for a community burial ground, school and Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Trustees receiving the donation were T.P. Ramsey, J.l. Ramsey and S.C. Mathis. The church was originally on the west side of the cemetery near a spring, but after the sanctuary burned, a new one was built closer to the burial ground under large oak trees. Since its establishment, the cemetery has been cared for by the community. The Cammack family donated a protective fence, and other family names associated with the graveyard's upkeep include Baker, Billingsley, Childs, Collins, Franks, Ramsey and Rhodes. Names found on headstones represent veterans, farmers, teachers, preachers and others, preserving the memory of area residents. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002