Waxahachie City Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker at Waxahachie City Cemetery tells it, here's the story as Duane passes it along. Now, most cemeteries will tell you something about a town if you know how to read the stones; and this one in Ellis County starts its story on the very first day of a brand new year. January the first, 1852.

You might think that's a day for fresh starts, for looking ahead. But out here on the Texas prairie, it was the day they laid pioneer merchant Silas Killough into the ground. Born in 1805, Killough was one of the founders of this very community, and his burial, the first one recorded here, is where this cemetery begins.

That's the kind of beginning only Texas hands you without blinking. Six years pass. 1858. A man named Emory W.

Rogers deeds over a tract of four point one six acres to the trustees of the Methodist church. Now pay attention to that name, because Rogers isn't just any donor. He was Waxahachie's first settler, arriving way back in 1846, and he had already given land for the townsite itself.

The man had a habit of shapin' this place one deed at a time. He'd be gone by 1874, but the ground he gave outlasted him by a long stretch. For decades, that four-point-one-six acres belonged to the church; until around 1900, when the cemetery passed from church hands into municipal jurisdiction.

The town took the wheel. And once a town takes the wheel, things tend to grow. Through gifts and purchases of land over the years, that original plot, not even five acres to start, has expanded to sixty-five acres.

Sixty-five. And resting within those sixty-five acres today are about ten thousand graves. Ten thousand stories, going all the way back to a merchant named Killough on the first morning of 1852.

Some places earn their size. This is one of them.

What the marker says

The first burial here occurred on Jan. 1, 1852, after the death of pioneer merchant Silas Killough (b. 1805), one of the founders of this community. The original 4.16 acre tract was given in 1858 to trustees of the Methodist church by Emory W. Rogers (d.1874), who was Waxahachie's first settler (1846) and donor of land for the townsite. About 1900, the cemetery was transferred from church to municipal jurisdiction. By gifts and purchases of additional land, the site has grown to 65 acres and contains about 10,000 graves.