Mt. Tabor Cemetery
Whitesboro, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Burrel Scarbrough (1817-1878) and his wife, Harriett (Melton) (1826-1890), both from Alabama, moved to Texas prior to the Civil War. In 1866, the Scarbroughs purchased land north of Whitesboro from the State of Texas for their farm, adding an adjoining 160 acres in 1878. Burrel identified a large hill on the property as a good site for a community cemetery. On March 13, 1878, Burrel formally deeded 8.5 acres of land to cemetery trustees Overton Hodges, C.C. Walker and Robert Wilson. Tradition holds that the cemetery was given the name Mt. Tabor for the site in Israel believed to be the site of the Biblical transfiguration of Jesus Christ. There are references to several early graves being marked with stones which were later removed. The cemetery’s first burial with a dated gravestone is that of I.E. Lindsey in 1868. Burrel Scarbrough died eight months after deeding the property in 1878 and is buried here along with Harriet and much of their family. Other burials include veterans from WWI, WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Notable features include curbed plots, ornate fencing, and an oval-shaped rock road that surrounds the oldest portion of Mt. Tabor Cemetery. Grave markers are mostly made of granite, limestone and marble. The entrance was constructed from the nearby Munger School House after the building burned in the early 1900s. Mt. Tabor Cemetery has been enlarged through the years by donations of land and money. It has been cared for by the Sandusky community, primarily guided by the Scarbrough family, and has served its community and surrounding areas for more than 140 years.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Alabama natives Burrel and Harriett Scarbrough settled north of Whitesboro before the Civil War, and in 1878 Burrel deeded 8.5 acres atop a hill for a community cemetery, named Mt. Tabor for the biblical mount of the Transfiguration. The earliest dated grave belongs to I. E. Lindsey in 1868, and Burrel himself was buried there months after the deeding. Cared for by the Scarbrough family and the Sandusky community for over 140 years, its curbed plots and ornate fencing shelter veterans of four twentieth-century wars.
Why it matters
A rural burying ground like Mt. Tabor is a community's most durable archive, holding the settlers, families, and generations of soldiers who made the place their home.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Burrel Scarbrough
- · Harriett Melton Scarbrough
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Allison Cemetery
Whitesboro, TX
Allison Cemetery took shape in the mid-1800s on three acres of North Texas prairie, its oldest dated grave marking a burial in 1865. Among those resting here are a family lost to influenza in the 1850s, several war veterans, and generations of the Dennis family and their neighbors—some in graves marked only by rough stones. Still tended by descendants, it remains in use today.
Site of Fort Johnson
Pottsboro, TX
William G. Cooke established Fort Johnson in 1840 to help guard the Republic of Texas's Military Road running from the Red River to Austin. Named for Colonel Francis W. Johnson, who had commanded Texas forces at the 1835 capture of San Antonio, it became the rendezvous point for the 1843 Snively Expedition. The surrounding settlement was known as Georgetown.
Aaron S. Mangum
Sherman, TX
Aaron Mangum came to Texas from South Carolina with a Georgia battalion in 1835 and served under Colonel James Fannin at Goliad during the Texas Revolution. Falling ill on an expeditionary mission, he was away from the garrison and so survived the massacre of Fannin's men in 1836. He later married Leonora Snively and settled in Grayson County; the town of Mangum, Oklahoma, carries his name.
Spring Creek Cemetery
Gainesville, TX
On the North Texas prairie of Cooke County, this graveyard opened in 1875 with the burial of the infant Mary C. Underwood, and in 1883 the Barnharts donated the land to a newly formed cemetery association. Its stones read like a roll call of American service across generations—a pioneer whose father fought in the Revolution, a young man lost in World War I training, and Roy Speake, Jr., killed in the 1944 invasion of Normandy. For more than a century, local families and a 1972 foundation have tended the rows.