Starr Cemetery and School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Out in Van Zandt County, there's a piece of ground that carries two purposes at once, the kind of place where a community put down both its learning and its dead. It goes by the name Starr Cemetery and School, and the story starts with a deed.

On September 14, 1886, a man named James F. Starr acted as attorney for Sarah F. Clapp, and together, through the proper turning of legal gears, they executed a deed donating two acres of land right here for a community school.

Two acres. That's where it begins. Now, land given for a school has a way of drawing people close, and when people gather close, life happens, and so does death.

Burials started occurring at this site as early as 1889. The earliest marked grave belongs to an infant son of B. A. and Ora Monroe, a child who died on February 18, 1889.

That date is right there on the stone, the kind of fact that makes you go quiet for a moment on a road like this one. Years kept passing. The school served its students, the ground received its dead, and the community kept growing around both.

Then in 1911, the cemetery was officially established when A. C. White and his wife sold two adjoining acres, expanding what had already quietly become a place of remembrance.

Among those interred here is Joseph Staley, a Civil War soldier, one of the veterans the ground holds in keeping. The people buried here and the children who came to learn here didn't all come from one town. This place belonged to three communities: Starr, Todd Hill, and Wentworth.

Three communities sharing two purposes on ground that started with a single donated deed. The research behind this marker was done by Shirley Ann Fuller, Researcher Historian, and her name is right there incised on the base, because some stories deserve a name attached to the telling of them.

What the marker says

James F. Starr, acting as attorney for Sarah F. Clapp, executed a deed donating two acres of land at this site for a community school on September 14, 1886. Burials occurred here as early as 1889, and in 1911 a cemetery was officially established when A. C. White and his wife sold two adjoining acres. The earliest marked grave is that of B. A. and Ora Monroe's infant son, who died February 18, 1889. Veterans interred here include Civil War soldier Joseph Staley. The cemetery and the school served residents of the Starr, Todd Hill, and Wentworth communities. (1991) Incise on base: Shirley Ann Fuller, Researcher Historian