Upper Greens Creek Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Upper Greens Creek Cemetery, out in Erath County. Now, every good story starts with people on the move. Back in 1873, early settlers came rolling into the Greens Creek area from Georgia and Alabama.

They didn't come empty-handed and they didn't come to idle. They bought farms, cleared the land, built homes, established a school, and organized two churches. Two.

Baptists and Methodists, each finding their own way to worship, holding religious services separately in members' homes right up until 1877. Then, later, they moved those services into a log schoolhouse. A community was taking shape, one handshake and one cleared acre at a time.

Now here's where the land itself enters the story. In July of 1880, a man named John W. Moore deeded two acres to the Baptist church.

Half of it for the living, you might say, and half for those already gone. Because when that deed was signed, five graves had already been placed on that ground. The place came to be known as the Greens Creek Baptist Cemetery, or the Upper Greens Creek Cemetery, depending on who you asked.

And if you want to know how far back those graves reach, the earliest documented one belongs to little Luther Kiker, just one year old, laid to rest in 1877. That's a quiet, heavy fact, and it deserves a moment. Six of the original thirteen charter members of the Greens Creek Baptist Church are buried in that same ground.

Founders of the congregation, side by side in the earth they helped settle. The cemetery kept growing as the community kept living. Nath G.

Mulloy deeded additional land to it in 1909. Then Fred and Stella Dupree added more in 1960. Layer by layer, the place expanded to hold what the years brought.

And what those years brought was considerable. The cemetery contains the burials of pioneer settlers and their descendants, and veterans of wars ranging from the Mexican War all the way to the Korean War. Generation after generation, the whole long arc of what it meant to live and serve in this part of Texas.

The cemetery is maintained by an association today, and it continues to serve the community. Some places earn their permanence. Upper Greens Creek is one of them.

What the marker says

Early settlers to the Greens Creek area arrived from Georgia and Alabama in 1873. They bought farms, cleared the land, built homes, established a school, and organized two churches. Religious services for the Baptists and Methodists were held separately in members' homes until 1877, and later were held in a log schoolhouse. John W. Moore deeded two acres of land to the Baptist church in July 1880. Half of the land was used as a burial ground, as five graves had been placed there. It became known as the Greens Creek Baptist or the Upper Greens Creek Cemetery. The earliest documented grave is that of one-year old Luther Kiker in 1877. Six of the original thirteen charter members of the Greens Creek Baptist Church are also buried in this graveyard. Additional cemetery land was deeded to the Upper Greens Creek Cemetery by Nath G. Mulloy in 1909 and Fred and Stella Dupree in 1960. The cemetery contains the burials of many of the area's pioneer settlers and their descendants and veterans of wars ranging from the Mexican War to the Korean War. The cemetery is maintained by an association and continues to serve the community. (1996)