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.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The country north of Whitesboro in the middle of the nineteenth century was frontier farmland, part of the great westward push that carried families from the older Southern states out onto the Texas prairie. Land could be bought directly from the State of Texas, and a household with the grit to work it could turn open ground into a farm and, over time, a settled neighborhood.
Burrel and Harriett Scarbrough were part of that movement, Alabama natives who came to Texas before the Civil War and, in 1866, secured land north of Whitesboro for their farm. The timing matters: the immediate postwar years were a period of rebuilding and resettlement across the South, and buying and expanding a farm in that moment was an act of hope planted in uncertain soil.
In such a community, one of the earliest shared needs was a place to bury the dead. Before organized towns and churches were fully established, families often relied on scattered private graves, and the founding of a proper community cemetery was a milestone, a sign that a group of neighbors intended to remain and to care for one another across generations.
People & events
The heart of this story is a gift of land. Burrel Scarbrough looked over his property and recognized that a large hill would make a fitting site for a community cemetery. On March 13, 1878, he formally deeded 8.5 acres to trustees named Overton Hodges, C. C. Walker, and Robert Wilson, turning a private hilltop into a shared and protected place.
There is a poignant coda to that act of generosity. Burrel died just eight months after signing the deed, in that same year of 1878, and was buried in the very ground he had set aside. His wife Harriett, who outlived him until 1890, rests there as well, along with much of their family. The founder became one of the founding residents of his own cemetery.
The name carries its own quiet meaning. Tradition holds that the burying ground was called Mt. Tabor after the mountain in Israel long associated with the Transfiguration, a fitting choice for a hilltop meant to be a place of reverence. The oldest dated gravestone belongs to I. E. Lindsey in 1868, and older graves were once marked only with plain stones since removed. Over more than 140 years the Sandusky community, guided especially by the Scarbrough family, has tended the place, adding land and care as the generations turned.
Its place in the American story
A rural cemetery like Mt. Tabor is one of the most honest historical documents a community ever produces. Its stones record who arrived, who married into whom, how long people lived, and which wars called the young men away. For countless American places whose paper records are thin, the cemetery is the fullest archive that survives.
Mt. Tabor holds that larger American story in miniature. Its burials include veterans of the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, so a single hilltop connects a nineteenth-century farming settlement to the great national conflicts of the twentieth century. Walking among those markers is a way of tracing how one small community sent its sons into the country's wars, decade after decade.
Even the physical details speak to a shared American heritage of memorial craft, from the curbed family plots and ornate ironwork fencing to the oval rock road encircling the oldest section. And there is a lovely act of reuse in the entrance, built from the remains of the nearby Munger School House after it burned in the early 1900s, so that a lost place of learning became the gateway to a place of remembrance.
If you visit
Come to Mt. Tabor for the feeling of a hilltop that a farmer once judged worthy of the dead, and you will understand his choice the moment you take in the view and the quiet. This is a place best experienced slowly, on foot, reading names and dates.
Look for the features the marker points out. The oval-shaped rock road wraps the oldest portion of the cemetery, and following it is a way of literally circling the earliest chapter of the community's story. Notice the curbed plots and the ornate fencing, and the mix of granite, limestone, and marble markers that record changing tastes and means across the generations.
Pause at the entrance and remember that it was built from the burned Munger School House, then seek out the Scarbrough graves to stand where the founder himself was laid to rest months after his gift. On a country drive through this corner of Grayson County, a cemetery like this is not a detour from the history, it is the history, waiting patiently on its hill.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Burrel Scarbrough
- · Harriett Melton Scarbrough
Themes & tags
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