Campground Cemetery
Mt. Enterprise, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Mt. Zion Baptist Association, composed of thirteen area Baptist churches, was organized on this property in 1857. The cemetery's name is derived from the use of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church sanctuary and grounds as a campsite by Confederate General John A. Wharton's Cavalry troop in 1864-1865. Although the first recorded burial is that of Guss Christopher in 1910, the presence of a number of unmarked grave sites suggests earlier burials. The cemetery contains about 140 burial sites and continues to serve as a graveyard for the surrounding rural community. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Mt. Zion Baptist Association, a fellowship of thirteen area churches, organized on this ground in 1857, and the cemetery takes its "campground" name from the Confederate cavalry of General John A. Wharton, who camped at the church during 1864-65. Though the first recorded burial dates to 1910, numerous unmarked graves point to earlier interments, and the roughly 140-site cemetery still serves the rural community.
Why it matters
It weaves together the religious life of a frontier community and the passage of the Civil War through East Texas, preserved in a working country graveyard.
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Related people
- · John A. Wharton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Linn Flat Cemetery
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This cemetery has served the Linn Flat community since the mid-nineteenth century, its land deeded by John Polk in 1849 with the stipulation that he lie at its center. The earliest burial, unmarked, dates to 1837, while the oldest marked grave belongs to Polk's wife, who died in 1855. The town of Linn Flat, named for its groves of linn trees, thrived until the railroad bypassed it in 1903, but families have kept the burial ground and its annual homecoming reunions alive for more than a century.
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