Thomaston Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of the official marker for Thomaston Cemetery, just as the Texas Historical Commission recorded it. Now, every town has a story, and every story, if you follow it long enough, leads you to a piece of ground like this one. Thomaston, DeWitt County.

Established in 1872 as De Witt County's very first railroad town. That alone sets it apart. And much of the land for the townsite itself was donated by two people: John P.

Wright and his wife, Mary M. Lockhart Wright. They gave the ground the town would stand on.

But a town isn't just the living. It's also the keeping of the ones who came before. So in 1886, John P.

Wright gave land for a cemetery. He would know it well, because not long after, in 1897, he'd be laid to rest there himself. Now, John P.

Wright was born October 29, 1829, and he died June 12, 1897. He outlived his first wife, Mary Melvina Lockhart Wright, born September 21, 1841, who died February 16, 1875. He remarried, and his second wife, Margaret Rankin Calliham Wright, born February 5, 1847, carried on after him.

In 1917, she donated an additional lot to adjoin the cemetery on the north. She died February 15, 1921, and she, too, rests there. Three of them, side by side, in the ground they gave.

The earliest marked grave in that cemetery belongs to someone who barely had a chance to know the world. An infant. George E.

McDonald, born October 1, 1870, and gone by March 8, 1871. That grave was there before the railroad town was even a year old. Before the fences, before the association, before nearly everything.

Speak of early graves, and you have to reckon with how fragile memory can be. The earliest markers in this cemetery were wooden boards. Just boards in the earth.

Around 1946, those boards were replaced by concrete blocks, doing their quiet work of saying: someone was here. Don't forget. And the cemetery grew.

Headstones mark veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Generation after generation, the people of Thomaston found their way to this ground. Today there are approximately 283 graves.

Somewhere in the 1930s, the community made it official. The Thomaston Cemetery Association was formed, taking on the responsibility of maintaining the place. In the 1940s, the original fence gave way to a chain-link fence, and the work of caring for the cemetery carried right on.

This marker was placed in 1986, the year of the Texas Sesquicentennial, commemorating a hundred and fifty years of Texas history. And the marker says it plainly: the cemetery serves as a reminder of early Thomaston history. A reminder.

That's a gentle word for what a cemetery does. It holds a town's whole story, from an infant who lived just five months, to the man who gave the land, to the soldiers who went to war and came home, and to the ones who didn't. Out here on a DeWitt County road, that piece of ground is still doing exactly what it was meant to do.

What the marker says

Thomaston was established as De Witt County's first railroad town in 1872, with much of the land for the townsite donated by John P. and Mary M. Lockhart Wright. Land for this cemetery was given in 1886 by John P. Wright, and his widow (second wife, Margaret Rankin Calliham Wright) donated an additional lot in 1917 to adjoin the cemetery on the north. There are approximately 283 graves located in the cemetery. Early graves were marked with wooden boards, which were replaced by concrete blocks about 1946. The earliest marked grave is that of an infant, George E. McDonald (October 1, 1870 - March 8, 1871). Also buried here are John P. Wright (October 29, 1829 - June 12, 1897), his first wife, Mary Melvina Lockhart Wright (Sept. 21, 1841 - Feb. 16, 1875), and his second wife, Margaret Rankin Calliham Wright (Feb. 5, 1847 - Feb. 15, 1921). Headstones in the cemetery also mark the graves of veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. The Thomaston Cemetery Association was formed in the 1930s, and is responsible for maintenance of the cemetery. The original fence was replaced in the 1940s with a chain-link fence. The cemetery serves as a reminder of early Thomaston history. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986