Smith Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. Out here in Burnet County, there's a piece of ground that holds a family's whole history, and it starts, like so many Texas stories do, with somebody who came from somewhere else and decided to stay. James Gibson Smith Jr. made his way here from Tennessee.

His wife, Sarah A. James, came from Arkansas. And together, sometime after they settled this part of Burnet County in 1850, they built a life.

Eight children. That's not a family, that's a community unto itself. And like any family that puts down real roots, they set aside a piece of land for the ones who wouldn't be leaving.

A family cemetery, right there on their own ground. Now, here's the part that'll stay with you. The first person buried in that cemetery wasn't James, and it wasn't Sarah.

It was their granddaughter. Anita Fay Smith. She died of diphtheria in 1901, and she was the first to rest in the ground her grandparents had set aside.

There's a particular kind of quiet that settles over you when you think about that. The old making a place, and the young being the first to need it. A neighbor, Charles McLean, followed her that same year, 1901, the second person buried there.

Then came James G. Smith in 1902, the third. The years kept moving, the way years do, and that cemetery kept its purpose.

Civil War veterans rest there. World War II veterans rest there. Generation after generation, the Smith family gathering in one place.

And in 1981, Smith descendants formed a cemetery association to make sure that ground is still kept and cared for. Some families just don't let go of what matters. This is one of them.

What the marker says

James Gibson Smith Jr., a native of Tennessee, married Sarah A. James, a native of Arkansas, soon after settling this part of Burnet County in 1850. Together they raised eight children and set aside this site as the family cemetery. Their granddaughter, Anita Fay Smith, who died of diptheria in 1901, was the first person to be buried here. A neighbor, Charles McLean (d. 1901) was the second person buried here followed by James G. Smith (d. 1902). A cemetery association formed by Smith descendents in 1981 maintains this site which includes veterens of the Civil War and World War II.