Young Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at Young Cemetery tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. Sam Young and his wife Patience Cornell Young made their way out of Illinois and into Collin County in 1842. Just the two of them planting roots in new Texas soil.

More Illinois folks followed in 1845, and Sam, he was already thinking ahead. He bought land from the Baccus Land survey, founded a school right there on his property, and was building something that looked an awful lot like a community. Then 1847 came, and Patience died.

Sam Young, born in 1814 just like his wife, would live on until 1891. But when he lost Patience, he didn't just grieve and move on. He established this cemetery on his land; gave it her as a kind of permanent place in the county she'd helped settle.

That's the founding of Young Cemetery, right there in a single heartbreak. Over the years, eleven pioneer families came to rest in this ground. Fifty-one known graves, carrying the names Abbott, Baccus, Bankston, Crenshaw, Dennard, Finley, Jackson, McConnell, McQuerry, Teel, and Young.

You've got the full roll call of a frontier settlement laid out in that list: names that cleared land, raised children, and built a county from scratch. And among the buried are men who answered the call of their country. Thomas Finley, who served in the War of 1812.

Jacob P. Houts and Jacob Baccus, Jr., who fought in the Civil War. Three veterans, three different chapters of American history, all restin' in the same quiet Collin County ground.

Sam Young set out to build a school and a life. What he left behind was a cemetery that held a whole community's story: fifty-one souls, eleven families, and one wife named Patience, who got here first.

What the marker says

Sam Young (1814-1891) and Patience Cornell Young (1814-1847) came to Collin county from Illinois in 1842. More Illinois settlers came to the area in 1845. Young bought land from the Baccus Land survey and founded a school on his property. He established this cemetery when Patience died in 1847. Eleven pioneer families are represented in the 51 known graves: Abbott, Baccus, Bankston, Crenshaw, Dennard, Finley, Jackson, McConnell, McQuerry, Teel and Young. Veterans buried here are Thomas Finley, who served in the War of 1812, and Jacob P. Houts and Jacob Baccus, Jr., who fought in the Civil War. (1996) Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004