Shiloh Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Shiloh Cemetery has to say, and friends, there's more packed into this ground than you might expect. Out here in Ellis County, the story starts before Texas was even a decade into its statehood. Peters Colony pioneers came pushing into this land and founded a place called Ovilla in 1844.

These weren't people passing through. They were planting themselves: building community, building church, building the kind of roots that outlast the people who put them down. Among those original settlers were James E.

Patton and his wife, Mary C. Patton. And it's Mary who holds a particular distinction in this cemetery.

The earliest marked grave here is hers. She died on August 14, 1851. Think about what that means; she arrived with the founding generation, helped shape Ovilla from raw colony land, and when she passed, this ground became, in a very real sense, the beginning of Shiloh Cemetery as a place of memory.

Now, a cemetery needs ground, and ground needs a deed. That's where James S. and Martha Berry come in, along with the Reverend Finis E. King.

Together, they formally deeded the land for the Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian church and cemetery. That act (putting pen to paper, making it legal, making it permanent) that's the quiet kind of bold that doesn't get sung about enough. And then the tombstones start telling the rest of the story.

Pastors who served the Shiloh church, their names carved in stone right alongside the congregation they tended. Veterans (men who fought in the Civil War, in World War I, in World War II, in Korea) resting here in Ellis County soil after seeing things most of us never will. Members of fraternal lodges.

And two postmasters from Ovilla in the nineteenth century, men who handled the mail when a letter from somewhere far away was about as close to a miracle as the ordinary world could offer. This cemetery has been holding Ovilla's story since 1844. Every name on every stone out here is a chapter.

Mary C. Patton got there first.

What the marker says

Burials in this cemetery began with Peters Colony pioneers who founded Ovilla in 1844. The earliest marked grave is that of Mary C. Patton, wife of elder James E. Patton, who died on August 14, 1851. The Pattons were among the original settlers of Ovilla. James S. and Martha Berry and the Rev. Finis E. King formally deeded land for the Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian church and cemetery. Tombstones record the graves of a number of pastors who served the Shiloh church and many veterans of the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and Korea. Buried here also are members of fraternal lodges and two 19th-century Ovilla postmasters. (2001)