DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Out here in Brown County, there's a patch of ground called Windham Cemetery, and the name belongs to an early settler and cattle rancher by the name of S. R.
Windham. The cemetery itself dates to 1879 — and when you say a place dates to a year, you want to know who was first. That would be J.
M. McPeeters, whose grave is the earliest documented one on these grounds. He died on July 18, 1879.
That's as far back as the record reaches, and it reaches pretty far. That same year, another man was laid to rest here — Martin Shelby Byrd. Now, Byrd was no idle hand.
He operated a store and a post office, and the community of Byrds was named for him. So the cemetery was barely a season old and already holding someone the whole surrounding countryside would remember by name. The years kept coming, and so did the burdens they carried.
Among those interred in Windham Cemetery are victims of the early twentieth-century influenza epidemic — a quiet devastation that touched nearly every corner of the country, and this corner was no exception. And alongside them rest veterans. Veterans of the Civil War.
Veterans of World War I. Veterans of World War II. Three wars, spread across generations, all finding their way back to this same piece of Brown County ground.
The cemetery has been in existence for over a century now, and it continues to serve area citizens. Some places earn their keep by what they hold. Windham Cemetery has been earning it since 1879.
What the marker says
Named for early settler and cattle rancher S. R. Windham, this cemetery dates to 1879. The earliest documented grave is that of J. M. McPeeters, who died on July 18, 1879. Also buried here in that year was Martin Shelby Byrd, who operated a store and post office and for whom the Byrds community was named. Others interred in the Windham Cemetery include victims of the early 20th-century influenza epidemic and veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. In existence for over a century, the cemetery continues to serve area citizens. (1990)