Gray Rock Cemetery
Mount Vernon, Franklin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Unmarked graves here may date from the 1840s, when the nearby town of Gray Rock was settled along a frontier highway. Of the 411 marked graves, the oldest is that of an infant, Lula Smith, who died Feb. 15, 1872. Although the land was deeded to two deacons of the Baptist church in 1887, it has always served as a community cemetery. An 1899-1900 epidemic of typhoid fever accounts for some of the burials. The town of Gray Rock vanished after the railroad bypassed it, but the cemetery is still in use. Gray Rock Cemetery Committee, organized in 1906, now maintains the site. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Some of the unmarked graves here may reach back to the 1840s, when the town of Gray Rock grew up along a frontier highway. The oldest headstone belongs to an infant who died in 1872, and a devastating typhoid epidemic in 1899–1900 accounts for a cluster of burials. Though the town vanished after the railroad bypassed it, the cemetery has remained in continuous use and has been tended by a community committee since 1906.
Why it matters
The cemetery outlived the town it served, a quiet monument to a vanished frontier community and to the epidemics and hardships that shaped early Texas life.
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Related people
- · Lula Smith
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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