Urban Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in rural Milam County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding stories for well over a century. Just over an acre of it, to be precise.

One point zero five acres, deeded by a man named Julius Paul Urban, a Wendish immigrant born in 1848 and gone by 1923, who sometime in the late 1890s put pen to paper and gave that land for use as a cemetery. No fanfare recorded. Just a deed, and a promise that the land would serve the living by keeping the dead.

That's the kind of quiet gesture that outlasts a man by a long, long while. And so they named it for him. The Urban Cemetery.

Now, the oldest grave they know of out there belongs to a woman named Madalena Denker, who died in 1903. You walk that ground today and you'll find her among many, including, and this is the part that settles heavy on the chest, numerous graves of infants and children from the early years of the twentieth century. The early years were hard years.

The stones don't shy away from that. Many of them bear inscriptions in German, a language that echoes the strong German heritage of the people who put down roots in this corner of Milam County. There was a Lutheran church out here once.

A school too. Both of them served the communities of Felton, Duncan, and Sharp. They no longer exist.

Communities shift. Institutions fade. But that one point zero five acres Julius Paul Urban deeded in the late 1890s, it's still there.

Still in use. Still keeping its promise to this rural part of Milam County. Some gifts, it turns out, are built to last.

What the marker says

This burial ground is named for Julius Paul Urban (1848-1923), a Wendish immigrant who deeded 1.05 acres of land for use as a cemetery in the late 1890s. The oldest known grave is that of Madalena Denker, who died in 1903. The cemetery also contains numerous graves of infants and children dating from the early years of the 20th century. Many tombstones bear German-language inscriptions, reflecting the area's strong German heritage. Although the Lutheran church and school that once served the Felton, Duncan and Sharp communities no longer exist, the Urban cemetery remains in use for this rural part of Milam County. (2001)