Yates and Methodist Protestant Cemeteries

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Yates and Methodist Protestant Cemeteries, out in Delta County. Now, every good Texas story starts with a journey, and this one's no different. In 1846, George Yates and his wife Mary Polly Wallace Yates loaded up their family and made their way to Texas.

George was born in 1807, Polly in 1809, and together they put down roots in a stretch of Hopkins County that would, in time, become part of Delta County. George wasn't a small thinker. He raised livestock on 976 acres of land.

That's not a farm, friends. That's a statement. But here's where the story turns quiet and heavy.

In 1855, a girl named Mary Yates died. She was fifteen years old, the daughter of George and Polly. They buried her on a hill near the family's log house.

Just a hill, and a grave, and the kind of grief that doesn't have words for it. That grave, though. That one grave on that one hill became something.

It became the origin of the family and community graveyard that would come to be called the Yates Cemetery. Thirteen burials took place there over the years, the last being William Henry Chesnut, who died in 1923. In 1887, a man named G.

L. Harper and his wife Emily Frances Yates Harper deeded one-half acre of land to the Methodist Protestant church for a graveyard. That donation included the Yates Cemetery itself, measuring one-fourth acre.

But the story doesn't end there. In 1901, that quarter-acre was given back to the Yates family. To the west of the main site rest Dr.

D. T. Robinson and his wife Eliza Robinson.

Theirs are the only marked graves there. Two other graves are known to exist, and it's believed there are several more, unnamed and unmarked, waiting quietly in the ground. Both cemeteries, the Yates and the Methodist Protestant, are maintained to this day by descendants of those buried within them.

A hill near a log house, a fifteen-year-old girl, and the people who never forgot. That's how a cemetery becomes a legacy.

What the marker says

George Yates (1807-1886), his wife Mary Polly Wallace Yates (1809-1886), and their family migrated to Texas in 1846. They settled in an area of the newly-formed Hopkins County that would later become part of Delta County. George Yates raised livestock on the 976 acres of land he owned. Mary Yates, the 15-year-old daughter of George and Polly Yates, died in 1855. She was buried here on a hill near their log house. Her grave marks the origin of the family and community graveyard called The Yates Cemetery. Over the years, thirteen burials too place; the last was that of William Henry Chesnut, who died in 1923. In 1887, G. L. Harper and his wife Emily Frances Yates Harper deeded one-half acre of land to the Methodist Protestant church for a graveyard. The donation included the Yates Cemetery measuring one-fourth acre, which was given back to the family in 1901. Dr. D. T. Robinson and his wife, Eliza Robinson are buried west of here; theirs are the only makred graves at this site. Although two other graves are known to exist, it is believed there are several more unmarked graves. Both cemeteries are maintained by descendants of those buried here. (1996)