Harmony Cemetery
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to oral history, the first person buried here was Vincent Herlock, who appeared in the 1850 census of Walker County with his wife and four sons. Herlock died in January 1851, and the cemetery was known for a time as Herlock Cemetery. Other 1860s and 1870s burials included those of members of the Murray and Goolsby families, and the graveyard was known by the Goolsby name as well. In 1906 the Harmony Missionary Baptist Church, formerly of the Sion community (4 miles north), was reestablished on this site. After the church was disbanded in the 1930s, the cemetery fell into disrepair. A cemetery association was formed i n the 1970s to care for the site. The cemetery remains a chronicle of the pioneer settlers of Walker County. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Harmony Cemetery is a quiet ledger of frontier Walker County, its earliest known grave dug for pioneer Vincent Herlock in 1851. Known in turn as Herlock and Goolsby cemetery, the ground later anchored the Harmony Missionary Baptist Church after it relocated here in 1906. Church and graveyard tell the familiar rural rhythm of settlement, worship, decline, and revival by a caretaking association.
Why it matters
Pioneer cemeteries like this preserve the names and kinship of the ordinary settlers who turned the Texas backcountry into farming communities.
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Related people
- · Vincent Herlock
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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