Smyrna 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 Harrison County, there's a patch of ground that's been holding the stories of East Texas for a long, long time. It starts with a land grant, 1845, signed by Texas Governor J.

Pinckney Henderson himself, putting a stretch of that piney country into the hands of a pioneer physician named John Chadd. Now Dr. Chadd could have kept every acre for himself, and nobody would have blamed him.

But the very next year, 1846, he donated land to the community. Not for one purpose. Three.

A church, a school, and a cemetery. And he chose the name himself, a biblical name, Smyrna. That name has stuck ever since.

The cemetery's story begins in 1850, when a man named John Glover was laid to rest there in an unmarked grave. No stone, no inscription. Just the ground and whatever prayers were said over it.

The earliest headstone that survives belongs to Susana Kirkpatrick, dated 1859. Then in 1874, Dr. Chadd came back to that land with a deed in hand and transferred two acres to the Smyrna Methodist Episcopal Church.

The cemetery and the church have been closely bound together through all the years that followed. Dr. Chadd himself is buried there, alongside his wife Emily Jane Taylor, and the tombstones of other early settlers who lived out their days in this corner of Harrison County.

More than 675 graves now fill that ground. Among them are veterans, men and women who served in conflicts stretching all the way from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. That is a long span of American history resting in one quiet place.

In 1954, the people of the Smyrna community came together and established the Smyrna Cemetery Association as a non-profit organization, making it official, making it lasting. More land was donated in 1962, and again in 1974. And the annual meetings, those have been going on since 1946, neighbors gathering at the cemetery year after year to tend what Dr.

Chadd started back in 1846. The site still serves Smyrna and many of the surrounding communities today. Some places just hold on.

Smyrna Cemetery is one of them.

What the marker says

Pioneer physician John Chadd received a land grant in 1845 made by Texas Governor J. Pinckney Henderson. Dr. Chadd donated land to the community in 1846 to be used for a church, school, and cemetery and chose the community's biblical name of Smyrna. This cemetery dates to 1850 when John Glover was buried in an unmarked grave. The earliest headstone is that of Susana Kirkpatrick in 1859. Dr. Chadd deeded two acres of land in 1874 to the Smyrna Methodist Episcopal Church. The cemetery has been closely associated with the church through the years. Tombstones mark the graves of Dr. Chadd and his wife Emily Jane Taylor, and other early settlers who lived and died in the area. Among the more than 675 graves are those of veterans of conflicts from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. The Smyrna Cemetery Association was established as a non-profit organization in 1954 by the people of the Smyrna community. Additional land was donated to the cemetery in 1962 and in 1974. Annual meetings have been held at the cemetery since 1946. The site continues to serve Smyrna and many surrounding communities. (1997)