Truby Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Out here in Jones County, there's a patch of ground three acres wide that holds more history than most folks give it credit for. This is Truby Cemetery, and its story goes back further than any deed could capture.

See, there were already gravestones here before anybody put pen to paper. Settlers in the area had been laying their people to rest at this site long before anything was made official. Then came December 4, 1906, when members of the Daughtrey family, early ranchers in these parts, formally deeded those three acres for cemetery use.

That's the moment the ground got its paperwork. But the ground had been doing its work long before that. The oldest marked grave belongs to an infant, Madge S.

McCargo, who came into this world in 1897 and left it in 1898. She was the granddaughter of George W. Scarborough, a pioneer Baptist minister, and his wife Martha.

The Scarboroughs had settled on this very land back in 1877, and they put down roots the way people did then. Deep ones. Now, a cemetery can be forgotten.

It happens more than you'd think. But caring descendants made sure this one wasn't. Sometime in the 1950s, they erected a fence around the grounds.

Then in 1998, they raised a flagpole. Simple acts, both of them, but they say everything about what the place means. Veterans are buried here.

Pioneers. Citizens of Jones County whose names are carved right into those stones. And that's the thing about a cemetery like this one.

Those gravestones aren't just markers of where someone ended. They're a chronicle, the marker calls them that itself, a chronicle of the heritage of Jones County. Every name, a thread.

Every date, a stitch. The whole cloth is still here, if you know where to look.

What the marker says

Several gravestones at this site attest to its use as a burial ground by nearby settlers before members of the Daughtrey family, early area ranchers, formally deeded these three acres for cemetery use on December 4, 1906. The oldest marked grave is that of infant Madge S. McCargo (1897-1898), granddaughter of pioneer Baptist minister George W. Scarborough and his wife Martha, who settled on this land in 1877. Caring descendants erected a fence in the 1950s and a flagpole in 1998 out of respect for the pioneers, veterans, and citizens laid to rest here; their gravestones remain a chronicle of the heritage of Jones County.Historic Texas Cemetery – 2000