DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Sholar Cemetery, out there in Shelby County. Now, before we get to the cemetery itself, you have to understand how this stretch of East Texas came to be settled in the first place. Several families made the journey from Henry County, Alabama, and put down roots in this area in 1846.
Among them were John and Nancy Scott — Nancy born a Kirkland — and the family they brought with them. Their son William Scott eventually came into possession of land here, and in 1850 he sold one hundred and eleven acres of it to his brother-in-law, a man named David Sholar. That transaction, quiet as it sounds on paper, set the stage for everything that followed.
The land became a burial ground in the summer of 1854. And here's where the story takes a turn that'll settle over you like a heavy sky. Six cousins were laid to rest that summer — six children, the youngest just one year old, the oldest ten.
All of them, likely taken by the same illness. Six young lives, same summer, same ground. The marker doesn't elaborate, and maybe it doesn't have to.
Some facts carry their own weight. From that sorrowful beginning, the surrounding community kept on living and growin', the way communities do. Truitt's Chapel organized across the road from this very site.
The Sholar post office opened up and operated from 1906 to 1915. And the nearby community of Eagle Mills was also bound up with this cemetery, connected to it the way small communities and their burial grounds always tend to be — quietly, persistently. Soldiers are buried here too, veterans of military conflicts going all the way back to the U.S.-Mexico War.
Their stones stand alongside gravestones bearing the emblems of the Masonic Lodge and the Woodmen of the World. And scattered through the rows are the ancestors of several area families, still remembered, still marked. Sholar Cemetery.
It started with a land deal between brothers-in-law, it opened in grief, and it's held this community's story ever since — one hundred and eleven acres, and every name carved in stone out there earned its place.
What the marker says
Several families from Henry County, Alabama, settled in this area in 1846, including the John and Nancy (Kirkland) Scott family. Their son William sold his brother-in-law David Sholar 111 acres here in 1850. This site became a burial ground in the summer of 1854 with the deaths of six cousins, ages one to ten, likely from the same illness. Truitt's Chapel later organized across the road, and the Sholar post office operated from 1906-15. The nearby community of Eagle Mills was also associated with this cemetery. Veterans of military conflicts dating back to the U.S-Mexico War are buried here, along with ancestors of several area families. Masonic Lodge and Woodmen of the World gravestones are also prominent.Historic Texas Cemetery-2007