Washburn Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Samuel and Mary Washburn packed up everything they had in Missouri and brought their family down to Texas in 1836. Just getting here was a story in itself, but the Washburns weren't done yet.

Two years later, in 1838, Samuel was granted twelve hundred and eighty acres of land. That's a serious piece of ground, the kind that says you're planting roots, not just passing through. And plant roots they did.

As time went on, more settlers followed, the way settlers do, and pretty soon there was a community taking shape out here in Grayson County. With a community comes life, and with life, eventually, comes the other thing. A burial site was needed.

So a portion of that original Washburn survey was set aside, right along the south edge, for a cemetery. Now, the oldest marked grave belongs to an infant, Mary Gentry, and that marker is dated 1867. But here's where it gets quiet and a little humbling.

Scattered across those two and a half acres, you'll find graves marked with nothing but rocks or bois d'arc posts. Not names. Not dates.

Just stones and old wood standing in for a memory. And those, folks, are believed to reach all the way back to the eighteen fifties. Nobody recorded who they were.

Time did what time does. All told, that two and a half acres holds about three hundred graves. The Washburn Cemetery Association tends the site today, keepin' faith with people whose names the land has nearly forgotten.

That's the kind of story a patch of south-edge ground can carry, if you're quiet enough to listen.

What the marker says

Samuel and Mary Washburn and their family moved to Texas from Missouri in 1836. Washburn was granted 1280 acres of land in 1838. As more settlers moved into the area, a burial site was needed and a portion of land on the south edge of the Washburn survey was set aside for a cemetery. The oldest marked grave is that of infant Mary Gentry in 1867. However, many graves marked only with rocks or bois d'arc posts are believed to be from the 1850s. The 2.5-acre cemetery contains about 300 graves. The Washburn Cemetery Association maintains the site. (1997)