Tioga Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Tioga Cemetery, up in Grayson County. Now, every town has its stories, and the stories that last longest are the ones carved in stone. Tioga got its start in November 1881, when settlers put down roots on the eastern edge of the East Cross Timbers.

The town incorporated as a city in 1906, and by then, Tioga had been growin for a couple of decades already. But for all those early years, when someone passed, families buried their loved ones on private land, in family cemeteries scattered across the countryside. That's a quiet, lonesome kind of arrangement, and it worked, until the community decided it wanted something more.

In February of 1906, a man named W.R. Gillespie and his wife Sally J. Gillespie deeded five acres of their own farmland to the local Woodmen of the World camp, to be used as a proper burial ground.

Five acres of their own land, given over. The first grave dates to that very year. And if you walk through those grounds today, you'll notice something particular about the early headstones.

Many of them are Woodmen of the World markers, a testament to the organization that first held this ground in trust. The community kept at it over the years, tending and improving the place, and in 1924 they added a pavilion, built for the solemn work of funeral services. Now here's where the story deepens, because this cemetery is not just a local matter.

The burial ground holds veterans of military conflicts all the way back to the Civil War, and not only one side of that terrible war. Both Union and Confederate soldiers rest there, side by side in the same Grayson County soil. Tioga didn't forget either of them.

Among the notable persons interred there is Texas Senator Olin R. Van Zandt. And then there is the Reverend H.G.

Ball, a Primitive Baptist preacher, who presided over the funeral service for Sam Rayburn, the United States Speaker of the House. Think about that for a moment. The man who said the final words over one of the most powerful figures in American government is himself buried in a five-acre plot that started as a farmer's gift to a fraternal camp in a small Texas town.

Today, an association maintains the cemetery for future generations, and the marker calls it exactly what it is: a tie to generations of Tioga area residents. Some ties, it turns out, are meant to hold forever.

What the marker says

In November 1881, settlers established the community of Tioga on the eastern edge of the East Cross Timbers, and it incorporated as a city in 1906. For the first decades of Tioga's history, resident buried their loved ones on private land in family cemeteries. In February 1906, W.R. and Sally J. Gillespie deeded five acres of their farmland to the local Woodmen of the World camp for use as a burial ground; the first grave dates to that year. Many of the early headstones are Woodmen of the World markers. The community continued using and improving the cemetery over the years, adding a pavilion in 1924 for funeral services. Today, the burial ground is a tie to generations of Tioga area residents, and is the final resting place for veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War, including both Union and Confederate soldiers. Other notable persons interred here are Texas Senator Olin R. Van Zandt and the Rev. H.G. Ball, a Primitive Baptist preacher who presided over the funeral service for U.S. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. An association maintains the burial ground for future generations. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004