Womack - White Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to give it its due. Now, out here in Bosque County, beside a quiet stretch of Steele Creek, there's a piece of ground that's been holdin' memory longer than most folks realize. The Womack-White Cemetery.

Two families, one plot of land, and a story that runs deep into Texas soil. It starts with the Abner Pryor Womack family. They came from Polk County, way back in 1859, and they settled right here beside Steele Creek.

Farmers and livestock people. The kind of family that works the land until the land becomes part of them. They put down roots, and I mean that in more ways than one.

In 1866, they made it official, purchasin' the property from J.P. Baker. That land became home.

And like all homes, it eventually became something more. A cemetery began to take shape, quietly, as family cemeteries do. The earliest documented burial the marker can point to is John A.

Womack, Abner's own grandson, who died in 1874. A grandson. You sit with that for a moment.

But the marker is careful to note something important: numerous unmarked graves exist. Meaning people were laid to rest here whose names the ground has kept to itself. The documented record only goes so far, and the soil knows the rest.

Then, in 1877, the Womacks sold their land to John Loren White and Elizabeth Miller White. A new family, a new chapter, but the same ground. The cemetery didn't belong to one story anymore.

It belonged to two. The first burial from the White family came in 1882, with the death of Katie White. And from that point on, the two families shared this sacred space, each in their own way.

The Womack plots and the White plots are divided into their own separate areas, though they rest under the same sky, beside the same creek. All told, there are thirty-eight documented gravesites in this cemetery. Thirty-eight names and dates the record managed to hold onto.

And behind them, an unknown number of unmarked graves, patient and unnamed, keeping their own counsel. Two families, one piece of Bosque County earth, and a creek that's been runnin' past all of it since before anyone thought to write any of this down. That's the Womack-White Cemetery.

It doesn't shout. It just endures.

What the marker says

THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY BEGAN AS THE FAMILY CEMETERY FOR THE ABNER PRYOR WOMACK FAMILY WHO LIVED BESIDE STEELE CREEK. THE WOMACK FAMILY MOVED TO THIS AREA FROM POLK COUNTY IN 1859 WHERE THEY FARMED THE LAND AND RAISED LIVESTOCK. IN 1866, THEY PURCHASED THE PROPERTY FROM J.P. BAKER. THE EARLIEST DOCUMENTED BURIAL IS THAT OF JOHN A. WOMACK, ABNER'S GRANDSON, WHO DIED IN 1874, BUT NUMEROUS UNMARKED GRAVES EXIST. IN 1877, THE WOMACKS SOLD THEIR LAND TO JOHN LOREN WHITE AND ELIZABETH (MILLER) WHITE. THE FIRST BURIAL FROM THE WHITE FAMILY BEGAN WITH KATIE WHITE AFTER HER DEATH IN 1882. THE WOMACK AND WHITE PLOTS ARE DIVIDED INTO THEIR OWN AREAS WITH 38 DOCUMENTED GRAVESITES. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2011