Zion Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Zion Cemetery in Grimes County. Pull up a chair, because this ground has been holding stories since before the Civil War. Back in 1852, settlers out in what would become Grimes County did what settlers do.

They built a community from scratch. Methodist Episcopal Church, South, formed that year when those settlers purchased three acres of land from a man named L.E. Jones.

On that property they raised a log cabin that served double duty, a church on Sundays and a school the rest of the week. They called the school McCary School. And when death entered the settlement, as it always does, they began laying their people to rest among the trees.

That's how Zion Cemetery came to be, quiet and gradual, the way cemeteries do. The church would eventually pick up and move to Iola. But the cemetery, it stayed.

It kept growing. In August of 1867, a woman named Priscilla McMahan donated three point four six acres adjoining that original three-acre tract, giving the dead a little more room, and honoring the ones who had gone before. Now among those buried here is Katy Holland McDowell Treadwell Cobb, born in 1815, died in 1886, a member of Austin's Old Three Hundred.

That name carries weight in Texas history. The Old Three Hundred. She is here.

The earliest grave belongs to John William Diserens, born 1839, died July 12, 1857. He was the son of early pioneer John David Diserens, born 1796, died 1867, and that father is buried here too, not far from the boy. The same year John David died, 1867, yellow fever swept through.

Some of those lost to that epidemic found their rest in this cemetery as well. Infant burials are here too, small markers for lives barely begun, which the stone keeps in memory even when the world moves on. Veterans are here from the Civil War, from the First World War, the Second World War, Korea, and Vietnam.

Generation after generation, the same ground receiving them. The Iola Cemetery Association, founded before World War II, manages the place today, while ownership remains with the Zion United Methodist Church in Iola, the same church that began all of this with three acres and a log cabin back in 1852. There is something to that.

The church moved. The people moved on. But the cemetery held its ground, and the names in it are still being tended.

That's not nothing. That's a whole community's memory, right there among the trees.

What the marker says

Zion Cemetery is the final resting place of early pioneers of Grimes County and their descendants whose memory is preserved here. Methodist Episcopal Church, South, now known as Zion United Methodist Church, formed in 1852 when settlers purchased three acres of land from L.E. Jones. Initially on this property, a log cabin church also served as a school, known as McCary School. When death entered the settlement, graves were placed among the trees, thus beginning the Zion Cemetery. Although the church later moved to Iola, the cemetery remained in the community and continued to grow. In August 1867, Priscilla McMahan donated 3.46 acres adjoining the original approximate 3-acre tract. Many burials at Zion Cemetery represent early pioneers and settlers of the area, including the gravesite of Katy Holland McDowell Treadwell Cobb (1815-1886), a member of Austin's Old Three-Hundred. The earliest grave in the cemetery is that of John William Diserens (1839-1857), who died on July 12, 1857. John William, the son of early pioneer, John David Diserens (1796-1867), is also buried here. The cemetery is also the final resting place of veterans of the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War. Also represented are those lost to the yellow fever epidemic in 1867, as well as numerous infant burials. The Iola Cemetery Association, founded before World War II, manages the historic cemetery with ownership remaining with the Zion United Methodist Church in Iola. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2017