Shelton-Rankin Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Shelton-Rankin Cemetery, out in Cass County. Now settle in, because this one starts the way a lot of good Texas stories do: with people leaving somewhere else and heading toward something they couldn't quite name yet. In the mid-1850s, a handful of settler families made their way here from Gaston County, North Carolina.

The Beatys, John and Margaret, born a Morris. The Morrises themselves, Benjamin and Sarah, born a Rankin. And the Sheltons, Spencer and Catherine, born a Morris.

Three families, tangled together by blood and by the long road west. They found their way to this corner of Cass County and started putting down roots. Spencer Shelton bought land here in 1856, and for a few years, things were the way you hope things will be.

Then came 1862. Now, 1862 is a year most Texans already associate with hard times, and it did not spare the Shelton family. That year, two of Spencer's sons died of measles.

Benjamin, who was eighteen years old. And little Bud, who was only two. Spencer established a family cemetery right there on the land, born out of grief, the way so many of these old country cemeteries were.

The ground that held his boys would hold others, too, in the years to come. The cemetery and the surrounding land changed hands in 1872, sold to James Rankin and William Cloninger, and it stayed in the Rankin family all the way until 1950. Nearly a century of Rankins tending that ground.

Then, in 1977, descendants organized the Shelton-Rankin Cemetery Association, making sure the place would be looked after by the people who had reason to look after it. Today, if you walk among those gravestones, you'll find military veterans. You'll find Woodmen of the World members, that old fraternal order that marked its own in stone.

And you'll find dozens of area pioneers and residents, ordinary people who came to this part of Texas, built something, and stayed. It's a quiet place now, but the names cut into those stones carry the weight of everything that brought those North Carolina families here in the first place, and everything they left behind when they finally lay down to rest.

What the marker says

In the mid-1850s, several settlers from Gaston County, North Carolina, arrived in this area, including the John and Margaret (Morris) Beaty, Benjamin and Sarah (Rankin) Morris, and Spencer and Catherine (Morris) Shelton families. Spencer Shelton bought land here in 1856 and established a family cemetery in 1862, when two sons, Benjamin (age 18) and Bud (age 2), died of measles. The cemetery and surrounding land was sold to James Rankin and William Cloninger in 1872, remaining in the Rankin family until 1950. Descendants organized a Shelton-Rankin Cemetery Association in 1977. Gravestones commemorate military veterans, Woodmen of the World members, and dozens of area pioneers and residents. Historic Texas cemetery - 2007