Wesley Chapel Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of the official marker for Wesley Chapel Cemetery, out in Van Zandt County. Pull over if you can. This one deserves a moment.

The Watkins community put down roots in the mid-1800s, the kind of settling that happens quietly, one family at a time, until suddenly there's a place where there wasn't one before. And like most places that mean to last, this one started making room for its dead before it had even made it official. The first recorded burial here is that of John I.

Sewell. He was buried on this very site in 1870, two years before anyone had formally called it a cemetery. Two years before the paperwork caught up to the grief.

In 1872, M. Crosby and his wife Isabell Crosby deeded land to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Wesley Chapel had a name and a purpose. The community grew around it.

Then in 1922, a new Wesley Chapel Methodist Church was built near the Watkins school, on land deeded by Thomas G. and Carrie Barfield. The trustees who stood with that church, O. M.

Norman, S. A. Sewell, Sr., and H.

L. Paschall, all of them now rest in the same ground they helped consecrate. So do Thomas G. and Carrie Barfield.

In 1957, local residents built a new frame chapel right here at the cemetery. Not far from town, not attached to some institution. Right here, where the people are.

Five acres. About four hundred graves. That number sits with you when you say it out loud.

And among those four hundred, more than fifty are young children and infants. Some of them were buried alongside their mothers, women who died in childbirth. There's no tall tale to tell about that.

Just the weight of it, quiet under the Texas sky. Also resting here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Three wars.

Three generations of men and women who went somewhere hard and, some of them, didn't come back the same, or didn't come back at all. The Wesley Chapel Cemetery Association keeps this place. They host annual reunions, memorial services, picnics, descendants of pioneer settlers gathering on ground their people broke and blessed and are buried in.

The cemetery is still in use. Still serving the area, just as it has for more than a century. Some stories don't end.

They just keep going, one name at a time.

What the marker says

The Watkins community was settled in the mid-1800s. M. Crosby and his wife Isabell Crosby deeded land for a church and cemetery to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1872. The first recorded burial in this cemetery is that of John I. Sewell, who was buried on the site in 1870 before it was officially designated as a cemetery. A new Wesley Chapel Methodist Church was built near the Watkins school in 1922 on land deeded by Thomas G. and Carrie Barfield. They, along with early church trustees O. M. Norman, S. A. Sewell, Sr., and H. L. Paschall are buried here. A new frame chapel was built at the cemetery in 1957 by local residents. The five-acre cemetery contains about 400 graves. Among those interred here are more than 50 young children and infants, some of whom were buried with their mothers who died in childbirth. Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. The Wesley Chapel Cemetery Association maintains the site and hosts annual reunions with memorial services and picnics for descendants of pioneer settlers. The cemetery remains in use and continues to serve the area as it has for more than a century. (1997)