Tomerlin Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Tomerlin Cemetery, out here in Medina County. Some places hold their stories in stone. Literally.

Washington Allen Tomerlin set aside this ground, a burial place for his family and his neighbors, back when this corner of Medina County was about as isolated as a place could be. Remote country. The kind of place where you made do with what you had, and what you had, sometimes, was not much more than a carved stone and a name.

The earliest dated gravestone here belongs to Marth Ivy Esary, born in 1856 and gone by 1875. Young. Painfully young.

But there are older stones scattered across these 1.39 acres, stones that carry nothing more than initials. No dates. No full names.

Just letters, cut into rock, marking someone who mattered to somebody, even if the full story has long since gone quiet. Now, if you want a sense of how much history this small patch of ground has quietly absorbed, consider this. Among the people buried here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam.

Four wars across generations. Medina County men, and likely women who outlived them, all finding their way eventually to this same place. And then there are the three Littleton brothers, said to have been Texas Rangers.

Three brothers. Said to have been Rangers. That word, said, is doing a little work there, and it earns a moment of respect.

The marker doesn't overreach. It tells you what people remember, and it lets that stand. Over in the southwest corner, you'll find the Brackens Family.

Freed slaves who settled nearby and whose place in this ground is as permanent and as honored as anyone else's here. That corner of the cemetery is part of the chronicle too, an honest part. And that's exactly the word the marker uses.

Chronicle. This cemetery remains a chronicle of Medina County pioneers and their descendants. Not a footnote.

Not a relic. A chronicle, still being kept, in stone and silence and initials that refuse to fully disappear. Washington Allen Tomerlin set this ground aside, and somehow, it held.

What the marker says

Washington Allen Tomerlin set aside this burial ground for his family and neighbors in what was at that time an isolated area of Medina County. The earliest dated gravestone is that of Marth Ivy Esary (1856-1875) but many old stones have initials and no dates. Among those buried here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam, as well as three Littleton brothers said to have been Texas Rangers. The southwest corner of this 1.39 acres holds the Brackens Family, freed slaves who settled nearby. This cemetery remains a chronicle of Medina County pioneers and their descendants. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2000