White Deer Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is the story of White Deer Cemetery, out in Carson County, and like a lot of Texas stories, it starts with a land deal and ends with something that outlasts everyone in it. Now settle in.

The ground has a lot to say. Back in 1916, a woman named Mrs. Beulah V.

Tillman, described in the legal paperwork of the day as a femme sole, purchased 155 of the 160 acres making up Block 7 of Survey 26 of the International and Great Northern Railroad Company. One hundred and fifty-five acres. Not all one hundred and sixty.

And that gap, those five acres left out of the deal, well, that little omission speaks volumes. It is believed those five acres may have already been set aside as an informal burial ground before Mrs. Tillman ever signed her name to anything.

Way back around 1905, it is believed a railroad employee died in an accident and was buried at that site. No records of that burial survive. Just the ground, keeping its secret.

So when Mrs. Tillman bought her land, she bought it around a cemetery that was already quietly doing its work. The oldest marked interment anyone can point to is the 1915 grave of Howard Milhoan.

And here is where the marker pauses to set the record straight, the way good stories sometimes have to. There is a replacement gravestone in that cemetery that says infant Jewel Brady died in 1914. But the marker tells us plainly: her death actually occurred in 1916.

Somebody got it wrong in stone, and the marker is correcting it for the ages. By March 1923, things got official. The White Deer Cemetery Association was formed, with its first directors named right there in the record: John Gores, J.C.

Jackson, C.E. Evans, G.B. Moss, and W.H.

Brady. And at that time, a man named Frederic de P. Foster, acting as a representative of the White Deer Land Company, sold those five acres to the association trustees.

The price: one dollar. One dollar for the ground that holds the town's dead. That is either the most generous transaction in Carson County history or the most solemn one, and maybe it is both.

A second charter was filed in 1953, but over time the association became inactive. Then in 1991, a group of interested citizens got together and reestablished it. Brought it back.

Because some things are worth the trouble of keeping. Today, White Deer Cemetery holds veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It holds the community's early pioneers.

It holds Jewel Brady, whatever year you believe the stone. It holds Howard Milhoan, 1915, the oldest marked grave on the grounds. And it is still in use, still meeting the needs of the people of White Deer and the surrounding area.

One dollar, and look what they built.

What the marker says

In 1916, Mrs. Beulah V. Tillman, a “femme sole,” purchased 155 of the 160 acres that made up Block 7 of Survey 26 of the International and Great Northern Railroad Company. Because the remaining five acres were omitted from the purchase, the site may have already been established as an informal burial ground. It is believed that an employee of the railroad died in an accident ca. 1905 and had been buried at the site, although no records of the burial survive. The White Deer Cemetery Association was formed in March 1923, and the first directors of the association were John Gores, J.C. Jackson, C.E. Evans, G.B. Moss, and W.H. Brady. At that time, Frederic de P. Foster, acting as a representative of the White Deer Land Company, sold the five acre cemetery to the association trustees for the sum of one dollar. A second charter was filed for the cemetery association in 1953, but the association eventually became inactive. In 1991, a group of interested citizens met to reestablish the association, which continues to oversee the site. The oldest marked interment in White Deer Cemetery is the 1915 grave of Howard Milhoan. (A replacement gravestone incorrectly indicates that infant Jewel Brady died in 1914, but her death actually occurred in 1916.) Additional burials include veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Today, White Deer Cemetery serves as a reminder of the community’s early pioneers, while still meeting the needs of the people of White Deer and the surrounding area. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2009