DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it this way, and I'm just passin' it along. Out in Fisher County, about a mile and a half southwest of where you're standin' right now, the land holds a story that goes back to the early 1880s. That's when the first settlers started puttin' down roots in this part of Texas — and when you settle land, you build for the livin' and make room for the dead.
Sometime between 1883 and 1884, a small frame building went up near this site. Nothing grand about it — just four walls and a purpose. It served as both a school and a church, the way frontier buildings had to earn their keep twice over.
A cemetery was established alongside it, already in use by 1884. The church took its name from its first pastor, a man by the name of J. B.
Woods. And so it became: Woods Chapel. Among the earliest settlers here was Henry Clay Lyon, born in 1815, a native of Tennessee.
Now Henry Clay Lyon was not a man who sat out the defining moments of his era. He served in the Republic of Texas Army — that's the army of a nation, mind you, before Texas was even a state — and later he fought with the Confederate forces during the Civil War. By the time he arrived in Fisher County, he'd already lived more history than most men get.
He died in 1889 and was buried right there in the Woods Chapel Cemetery. But here's where the story gets a little complicated, the way family stories do. Lyon's wife and children were buried at the Roby Cemetery.
So a granite marker in Henry Clay Lyon's honor was placed over there, at the site of their graves. And during the Texas Centennial of 1936, there were plans — real plans — to reinter him next to his widow. Those plans were never completed.
He stayed where he was. The family, in a sense, remained separated by the ground itself. The earliest marked grave in the Woods Chapel Cemetery belongs to Sarah H.
Lawrence, born in 1881, died in 1884 — a granddaughter of Henry C. Lyon. She was among the very first to be laid to rest there.
Of the twenty-six marked graves in this cemetery, thirteen are those of infants or small children. Half of the marked dead never had a chance to grow old on this land. And beyond those twenty-six, there are at least twenty-eight more graves with no markers at all — names the ground has kept to itself.
Every year on April 21st, San Jacinto Day, people still gather here for an annual observance. In a county this size, that kind of continuity means something. The marker was placed in 1988, and it calls this cemetery an important part of Fisher County history.
Standing here, breathing the dust of Fisher County, it's hard to argue with that.
What the marker says
(1.5 miles southwest) Settlement of this area of Fisher County began in the early 1880s. A small frame building, erected near this site in 1883-1884, was used as a school and church. A cemetery was established and was in use by 1884. The church was named in honor of its first pastor, J. B. Woods. Among the first settlers here were Henry Clay Lyon (1815-1889) and his family. Lyon, a native of Tennessee, was a veteran of the Republic of Texas Army as well as the Confederate forces of the Civil War. Although Lyon is buried in the Woods Chapel Cemetery, a granite marker in his honor was placed in the Roby Cemetery at this site of the graves of his wife and children. Plans to reinter him next to his widow during the Texas Centennial of 1936 were never completed. The earliest marked grave in the Woods Chapel Cemetery is that of Sarah H. Lawrence (1881-1884), a granddaughter of Henry C. Lyon. Of the twenty-six marked graves here, thirteen are those of infants or small children. The graveyard also contains at least twenty-eight unmarked graves. An important part of Fisher County history, the cemetery is the site of an annual San Jacinto Day observance on April 21. (1988)