Blackland Cemetery
Fate, Rockwall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1882, William and Cassandra Hunt Harvey donated land to the farming community of Blackland to be used for a school, church and cemetery. The newly created cemetery was combined with the George V. Bost family cemetery, which contains the burial ground's oldest marked grave, dating to 1879. Blackland Cemetery graves include those of veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War and features fraternal markers, a zinc obelisk and older, vertical stones. Today, the cemetery serves as a reminder of former residents of the Blackland settlement. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1882 William and Cassandra Harvey gave land to the Blackland farming community for a school, church, and cemetery, which absorbed the older Bost family plot and its 1879 graves. The burial ground holds veterans reaching back to the Civil War, along with fraternal emblems, a zinc obelisk, and weathered upright stones. Today it stands as one of the few tangible reminders of the vanished Blackland settlement.
Why it matters
Rural cemeteries like Blackland are often the last physical record of the farm communities that once dotted the Texas Blackland Prairie, preserving names and memory that outlasted the towns themselves.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William Harvey
- · Cassandra Hunt Harvey
- · George V. Bost
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nevada
Nevada, TX
Nevada grew from an 1830s land grant into a settlement founded by Missouri emigrant Granville Stinebaugh in 1852, incorporating in 1891 as the rich Blackland Prairie drew farmers. The arrival of the St. Louis and Southwestern (later Cotton Belt) Railroad in 1888 pulled the town toward the depot and filled its downtown with shops, hotels, and fraternal lodges. Then, before dawn on May 9, 1927, a half-mile-wide tornado tore through the west side of town, killing 27 and wounding 75, ending Nevada's rise.
Empire Masonic Lodge
Nevada, TX
The Empire community once had a school, post office, churches, stores, and a cotton gin, and in 1884 twenty-five master masons chartered a lodge there, meeting on the Saturdays before full moons. As Empire faded in the 1880s the lodge followed the people to Nevada, endured the deadly 1927 tornado that leveled its building, and rebuilt with help from fellow lodges. Long after the Empire settlement vanished, the lodge adopted its last surviving remnant, Bear Creek Cemetery, and remained the oldest institution in Nevada.
Lavon
Lavon, TX
Drawn by the rich Blackland Prairie soil and Bear Creek's water, settlers reached the Lavon area in the 1850s, and the town proper took root when the railroad arrived in 1886. Originally called Thompson or Thompson Switch after early postmaster and merchant Elbert Thompson, it was renamed Lavon for his son to avoid confusion with another town. WPA crews built a school here in the late 1930s, and in the 1950s Lavon Dam turned the area into a fishing and boating retreat—one restaurant even appeared in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.
Bear Creek Cemetery
Nevada, TX
In the mid-1800s, settlers built the community of Empire and organized the Bear Creek Methodist Episcopal Church, whose graveyard took its first marked burials in 1873. Interred here are a Confederate veteran, physician-minister J.L. Brockman, and community leaders, their headstones bearing Masonic and Woodmen of the World emblems. Though Empire's boarding school and church are long gone, the cemetery and the relocated Masonic lodge endure as the settlement's last reminders.