Long Prairie Cemetery
Kerens, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1870, Lawrence S. Taylor sold five acres of land for school and church purposes to Nelson Owen, J.T. Selman and W.B. Gage, trustees of the Long Prairie School District. The Long Prairie School and the Long Prairie Methodist Church shared the site, which the community also used as a cemetery. The school district consolidated into the Kerens Independent School District in 1949. Around that same time, the church merged into the Kerens Methodist Church, and the school district and the church sold their respective land at this site to the Long Prairie Cemetery Association. The first burial at the graveyard, which is also known as Alligator Cemetery, is that of Sallie K. Burt, a child who died in 1872. Many graves are marked with fraternal organization symbols, and several belong to veterans who fought in conflicts dating back to the Civil War. The names of these Long Prairie residents and their families, friends and neighbors serve as reminders of the community's history, from settlement through hardships and success. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2003
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1870 Lawrence S. Taylor sold five acres for school and church use, and the site soon served the Long Prairie community as schoolhouse, Methodist church, and graveyard together. The first burial, in 1872, was a child, Sallie K. Burt. Fraternal emblems and veterans' graves—reaching back to the Civil War—still mark the ground, also known as Alligator Cemetery.
Why it matters
Shared school-church-cemetery grounds like this were the whole civic infrastructure of a frontier settlement, and their headstones now preserve the only record of many pioneer families.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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