Thompson Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it: Thompson Cemetery, Collin County. Now, most pioneers come to a place and leave their mark on it. Abner Thompson came to Collin County about 1850, settled on land that was originally part of the Silvester Williams Survey, and left something a little more permanent than most; he deeded a portion of that land to be used as a cemetery.

Which, as it turned out, he was the first to need. The first burial at Thompson Cemetery was Abner Thompson himself, in 1852. That's a man who planned ahead, you have to give him that.

His grave is marked with two large square stones; still there, still standing, though time has had its way with them. They've deteriorated through the years and become nearly illegible. But right nearby, marking the grave of one of Thompson's employees, stand tall posts of Bois d'Arc wood.

And here's the thing about Bois d'Arc: those posts have stood the effects of weathering for more than one hundred years. Whatever that employee's name was, he rests beneath timber that simply refuses to quit. The cemetery grew, the way cemeteries do.

Also buried here are Miles and Emily J. Graves (and yes, that's their real name, Graves, resting in a cemetery, which is either a cosmic joke or a kind of destiny, and the marker doesn't say which). In 1862, Miles and Emily J.

Graves donated over an acre of land to the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, a congregation that had been organized five years earlier. The church held that land and held together; until the early 1880s, when the congregation divided. When it did, that land was given to the Thompson Cemetery, which was then enlarged several more times in later years.

So the ground kept growing. And the community kept coming back to it. Since the early 1950s, a Memorial Day service has been held at Thompson Cemetery every single year; bringing together people from the nearby communities of Lavon and Copeville.

Year after year, without fail. Today, there are over 800 graves here, each one given perpetual care by the Thompson Cemetery Association. Abner Thompson deeded a patch of the Silvester Williams Survey and set something in motion that's still going; still growing, still gathering people, still tended.

More than a hundred and fifty years on, the ground holds, the Bois d'Arc posts hold, and come Memorial Day, the people come.

What the marker says

Collin county pioneer Abner Thompson came to this area about 1850 and settled on land that was originally part of the Silvester Williams Survey, deeding a portion of it to be used as a cemetery. The first burial, that of Thompson himself, took place in 1852. His grave is marked with two large square stones which have deteriorated through time and have become nearly illegible. Tall posts of Bois d'Arc, which mark the nearby grave of one of Thompson's employees, have stood the effects of weathering for more than one hundred years. Also buried here are Miles and Emily J. Graves who, in 1862, donated over an acre of land to the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, which was organized five years earlier. When the congregation divided in the early 1880s, that land was given to the Thompson Cemetery, which was enlarged several more times in later years. A Memorial Day service has been held at the Thompson Cemetery each year since the early 1950s, bringing together people from the nearby communities of Lavon and Copeville. There are over 800 graves here which are given perpetual care by the Thompson Cemetery Association. (1983) Historic Texas Cemetery (medallion added to post 2005)