Shannon Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Clay County, there's a piece of ground that has been holding stories since before most of Texas got around to naming itself. The settlement that grew up here got its first name from the land itself.

Stampede Springs, they called it, established in 1878 near a flourishing spring of water and a general store. You can almost picture it. Water drawing people in, a store to trade at, and slowly, steadily, a community taking root.

But every community, sooner or later, needs a place for its dead. The first burial in this cemetery was that of Mary W. Gibson, born in 1824, laid to rest in 1879.

First in, as they say. By 1880, the trustees of the Stampede Springs School community had purchased five acres, including this very site, setting it aside for a school, a church, and a graveyard. Three things a settlement needs if it means to last.

Then came 1893, and with it a post office, and something else entirely. A new name. Shannon.

Whether it was the U. S. Postal Service that did the renaming or local settlers themselves, well, the marker doesn't take sides on that one, and neither will I.

By the mid-1920s, Shannon had grown to a population of 112 souls. In 1907, another acre was donated to the cemetery, because the ground was filling up, and the living kept on living. A cemetery association was established in 1949, somebody making sure the place would be tended and remembered.

Now here's the part that settles in quiet and stays with you. By 1990, the population of Shannon stood at 23. Twenty-three living residents.

But by the end of the twentieth century, that cemetery held 311 graves, with 104 family names represented. The town got smaller. The cemetery got larger.

And the names in the ground outnumber the names in the houses by a margin that tells you everything about time and nothing you didn't already suspect.

What the marker says

Established near a flourishing spring of water and a general store in 1878, the settlement around this site was known as Stampede Springs. The first burial in this cemetery was that of Mary W. Gibson (1824-1879). Trustees of the Stampede Springs School community purchased five acres including this site for a school, church and grayeyard in 1880. A post office opened in 1893, and the town was renamed Shannon, either by the U. S. Postal Service or by local settlers. In 1907 another acre was donated to the cemetery. The population of Shannon was 112 in the mid-1920s. A cemetery association was established in 1949. In 1990 the population was 23. There were 311 graves in the cemetery at the end of the 20th century, with 104 family names represented. (2000)