Farr's Chapel Cemetery
Newton, Newton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in the yard of a Methodist church founded in 1868 by Alfred Farr, this cemetery contains more than 150 tombstones placed since the 1850s and 1860s. The first grave, that of Mollie Westbrook, is marked by a rock that bears no date. Land for the cemetery was given in 1873 by Joshua and Matilda Westbrook and in 1892 by William and Mary Westbrook. War veterans, county officials, and early preachers, including the Rev. R. M. Stewart and B. Z. Powell, are buried here. The graveyard is maintained in the "scraped" style, in which all grass is removed from the graves.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Set in the yard of a Methodist church founded in 1868 by Alfred Farr, this East Texas cemetery holds more than 150 tombstones, the earliest dating to the 1850s and 1860s. Its first grave, that of Mollie Westbrook, is marked only by an undated stone, and the Westbrook family later gave land to enlarge the grounds. War veterans, county officials, and early circuit preachers rest here, and the graveyard is kept in the old "scraped" style, with grass cleared bare from the graves.
Why it matters
The scraped-earth cemetery preserves a Southern folk burial tradition that is fast vanishing, making Farr's Chapel a living record of how rural communities honored their dead.
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Related people
- · Alfred Farr
- · Mollie Westbrook
- · R. M. Stewart
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Farrsville Cemetery
Burkeville, TX
Farrsville Cemetery holds the early graves of a Newton County settlement that grew up around Methodist minister Alfred Farr, who arrived before 1860. First known as Hines Cemetery for a nearby homesteader, the ground took its earliest recorded burial in 1859 and was formally deeded in 1878 as a tract reserved for a church, school, and graveyard. It was renamed Farrsville Cemetery in 1992.
Town of Newton
Newton, TX
When Newton was laid out in 1853 in Texas's easternmost county, it was little more than a stand of oaks and beeches—yet its central location won it the county seat that very year. Major John Moore built its first house and its first frame courthouse, and for decades the town crept along, counting just four buildings in 1859. The railroad's arrival in 1905 finally spurred growth, and sawmills turning the surrounding forests into baskets, tool handles, turpentine, and furniture made timber the backbone of the town's economy.
Newton County Courthouse
Newton, TX
Newton County's present courthouse, raised in 1902-03 from brick fired on nearby Caney Creek, followed earlier courthouses at Burkeville in 1848 and on this square in 1853. Contractors Martin & Moody of Comanche gave it a Second Empire design with a mansard roof, corner quoins, and an unusual truncated clock tower. The interior was altered in 1910 and 1925, a jail was added in 1936, and the building was restored in the early 1970s.
Hardy Cemetery
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This piney-woods burial ground began with the grave of Joseph Lane around 1850, and in 1853 his son set aside a small plot that grew over the decades into a two-acre family and community cemetery. Among those buried here is James Persinger Hardy, who served with Kentucky volunteers in the Army of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and later as a Newton County commissioner. Wrought iron, a handful of inscribed stones, and rows of iron-ore rocks marking unknown graves recall the settlers who wrested their living from the surrounding forest.