DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. Out here in Smith County, there's a cemetery and a church that go back to the early days of East Texas settlement, and the story of Union Chapel starts, as so many good stories do, with the ground itself. The earliest marked grave belongs to Olive Cosby Mayne, dated August of 1873.
Now hold that date in your mind, because just one month later, a man named Amplias Smith deeded three acres of land right there for a Methodist Church and cemetery. One month. The ground was already speaking before the deed was even signed.
That's the kind of timing that makes you wonder who was watching over whom. The congregation didn't waste any time. They built a sanctuary, and that structure served the community faithfully until a new one was erected in 1949.
In the years between, Smith and others gave additional land over time, gradually enlarging the cemetery well beyond those original three acres. Many members of pioneer families in this rural area found their final rest here, including the land donor himself, Amplias Smith, born in 1813 and laid to rest in 1888, and his wife Martha, born in 1825 and buried in 1883. They gave the land.
Then they joined it. Union Chapel Cemetery and Church, out in Smith County, where the story began in the dirt before the paperwork ever caught up.
What the marker says
The earliest marked grave in this cemetery, that of Olive Cosby Mayne, is dated August 1873, one month before early area settler Amplias Smith deeded 3 acres of land here for a Methodist Church and cemetery. The congregation soon built a sanctuary that served until a new structure was erected in 1949. Smith and others gave additional land over the years, thus greatly enlarging the size of the cemetery. Many members of pioneer families in this rural area are buried here, including land donor Amplias Smith (1813-1888) and his wife, Martha (1825-1883). Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.