Wagram Cemetery

Duane's take

The way this marker tells it, here's the story of Wagram Cemetery, and I'm just passin' it along the way the record lays it out. Out here in Mason County, there's a stretch of ground that's been holdin' the memory of a community for well over a hundred years. The place was known as Blue Stretch first, a name that carried the settlers through their early days, until a post office opened in 1906 and the name Wagram took root.

But the cemetery, well, the cemetery came long before that post office. It was established right alongside the community schoolhouse, the way so many things in frontier Texas grew up side by side out of plain necessity. In 1897, Mr. and Mrs.

J.C. Goodall transferred the land to the Blue Stretch community specifically for burial purposes. That's the documented handoff.

But here's the thing about this ground. The first marked burial is that of Marion Eaker Miller, three months old, laid to rest in 1880. Three months old.

You pause on that a moment and let it settle. And yet, scattered across this cemetery, there are graves marked by nothing more than uncarved rocks, simple stones with no names, no dates, just presence. Those rocks may predate even that 1880 burial.

Whoever they hold, the record doesn't say, and the marker doesn't pretend to know. What it does say is this: Wagram Cemetery is still here. Still serving the community.

Still maintained by a perpetual care cemetery association, keeping a promise to the living and the long-gone alike. From uncarved rocks to a care association that carries on today, that's one long, quiet act of remembrance.

What the marker says

Wagram Cemetery This cemetery was created to serve settlers of the Blue Stretch community, which became known as Wagram when the post office opened in 1906. This cemetery was established alongside the community schoolhouse. The first marked burial is that of three-month-old Marion Eaker Miller (d. 1880). Several graves marked by uncarved rocks may predate the 1880 burial. Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Goodall transferred the land to the Blue Stretch community in 1897 for burial purposes. The cemetery continues to serve the community today and is maintained by a perpetual care cemetery association. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002