Union Cemetery, Old

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Old Union Cemetery, out three quarters of a mile south of where you're standing right now. Now, Delta County is quiet country. Farm land, ranch land, the kind of place where families put down roots and stayed.

And when they stayed, they needed a place to lay their people to rest. Old Union Cemetery served three of those communities, Gough, Yowell, and Antioch, and it has been doing that work for a long, long time. The earliest recorded burial goes all the way back to 1859.

A man named W. H. Henderson.

Whatever his story was, whatever brought him to this corner of Texas, this ground received him first. More than ninety marked graves followed, most of them arranged in family plots, which tells you something right there. Families came here together, and they stayed together, even in death.

Among those buried here are many of the area's earliest settlers and their descendants. But three names carry a particular weight. T.

J. Hollon, Hiram G. Wynn, and T.

J. Craig. Three veterans of the Civil War, sleeping under Delta County soil.

Whatever they saw, whatever they carried back from that conflict, this is where the road finally ended for them. The last recorded burial was Georgia Missouri Hollon, in 1946. That name, Georgia Missouri Hollon, sounds like the whole South compressed into one person.

And with her, the recorded burials closed. But the story didn't end there. The very next year, 1947, a cemetery association was established to maintain and improve the grounds.

Someone decided this place was worth keeping. Worth tending. And out there, three quarters of a mile south, it still stands, holding more than ninety names and everything those names once meant to these communities.

What the marker says

(0.75 mi. S) This graveyard served the farm and ranch communities of Gough, Yowell, and Antioch. The earliest recorded burial is that of W. H. Henderson in 1859. The cemetery contains more than 90 marked graves mostly arranged in family plots. Buried here are many of the area's earliest settlers and their descendants and at least three veterans of the Civil War: T. J. Hollon, Hiram G. Wynn, and T. J. Craig. The last recorded burial was that of Georgia Missouri Hollon in 1946. A cemetery association was established in 1947 to maintain and improve the grounds.