Union Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Four acres. That's what it started with.

Four acres of Falls County ground, donated by early settlers Joseph Marcus Jackson and his wife Eleanor Thompson Jackson. Now, folks donate land for all kinds of reasons, but the Jacksons gave this particular patch for something that was meant to outlast all of them. And it has.

The name they gave it, Union Cemetery, carries its own quiet statement right there in the title. Union. Because it was never meant for just one town, one family, one kind of neighbor.

It serves all of the communities around Durango. Everybody. That was the idea from the start.

The earliest recorded burial tells you just how far back this ground has been holding stories. An infant, Mary Braswell, laid to rest in 1836. Think on that a moment.

Eighteen thirty-six. That's not just old, that's the deep roots of Texas old. More than eight hundred burials have followed, pioneer settlers and their descendants, people who broke this land and raised families on it, and veterans who carried Falls County into the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.

Four acres holding more than eight hundred souls and the weight of every era this county has lived through. An association was established in 1977 to keep the place up, and that association is still at it, still maintaining the grounds, still making sure Union Cemetery does exactly what Joseph and Eleanor Jackson intended. It continues to serve this area of Falls County.

Four acres. That's all it took to hold a community together across nearly two centuries.

What the marker says

Four acres of land were donated for Union Cemetery by early settlers Joseph Marcus Jackson and his wife Eleanor Thompson Jackson. Named Union Cemetery because it serves all of the communities around Durango, the earliest recorded burial was that of infant Mary Braswell in 1836. Among the more than 800 burials are many of the area's pioneer settlers and their descendants, and veterans from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. The cemetery is maintained by an association established in 1977, and continues to serve this area of Falls County.