Clark Cemetery
Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial ground was established by the Hatcher family and others in the 1850s. By the Civil War, it became known as Clark Cemetery, named for a pioneering Cooke County family. In the 1850s, Nathaniel Miles Clark, his wife Mahuldah and their children moved here. Nathaniel was among the Unionists who were lynched in the Great Gainesville Hanging in 1862; the earliest marked grave here is his. Besides the Clark family, others, including the Insels, Pittners and Reinhardts, are represented here. The burial ground features obelisks, vertical stones, curbing, German language markers and a granite monument. Since 1939, descendants of the interred have cared for the cemetery. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Begun by the Hatcher family in the 1850s, this Cooke County burial ground took the name of the Clark family, German-speaking pioneers who settled the area. Its earliest marked grave belongs to Nathaniel Miles Clark, a Unionist hanged in the 1862 Great Hanging of Gainesville, when wartime hysteria led to the mass lynching of suspected Union sympathizers. Obelisks, curbing, and German-language markers still stand among the graves, cared for by descendants since 1939.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a rare, tangible reminder that the Civil War split not only North from South but neighbor from neighbor deep inside the Confederacy, where dissent could cost a man his life.
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Related people
- · Nathaniel Miles Clark
Related events
- · Great Hanging at Gainesville (1862)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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