Spring Creek Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Spring Creek Cemetery in Cooke County. Now settle in, because a cemetery that calls itself a chronicle has got some stories to keep. The earliest burial on this site is that of infant Mary C.

Underwood, who died in 1875. Just a child, gone before the world had much chance to know her. Seven years later, in 1882, another infant was laid to rest here, identified only as Newton's child.

No full name, no fuller story, just those two words carved into what became known as Stranger's Row. That name alone tells you something about how this land held people who might otherwise have been forgotten entirely. The following year, 1883, John P. and Sarah Jane Barnhart, she born a Ball before she married, donated this land to the newly formed Spring Creek Cemetery Association.

A gift, plain and deliberate, so the ground could go on doing what it had already begun doing. And it did. Among the pioneers and their descendants who came to rest here is Maleta Stapp Kleiser, born in 1816, died in 1902, whose father had served in the Revolutionary War.

Think on that. A woman whose own father fought in the founding of this country, and here she lies in Cooke County soil. The generations stretch in every direction from a grave like that.

Then came the wars of the twentieth century. Travis Anderson, born 1891, died 1918, never made it overseas. He died while in training during World War I.

Roy Speake, Jr., born 1918, died 1944, made it all the way to the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II, and did not come home. Two men, two wars, both names held right here in this ground. By 1972, the Spring Creek Cemetery Foundation was organized to maintain the graveyard, to make sure it kept being what it already was: a chronicle.

Not a metaphor, that word, a promise. A chronicle of Cooke County. From an infant in 1875 to a soldier at Normandy, this place has been takin' names, and keeping them.

What the marker says

The earliest burial on this site is that of infant Mary C. Underwood, who died in 1875. Another infant, identified only as "Newton's child," was interred on what became known as "Stranger's Row" in 1882. The following year, John P. and Sarah Jane (Ball) Barnhart donated this land to the newly formed Spring Creek Cemetery Association. Among the pioneers and their descendants interred here is Maleta Stapp Kleiser (1816-1902), whose father served in the Revolutionary War. Travis Anderson (1891-1918) died while in training during World War I, and Roy Speake, Jr. (1918-1944) died in the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. The Spring Creek Cemetery Foundation was organized in 1972 to maintain the historic graveyard. Spring Creek Cemetery is a chronicle of Cooke County. (2000)