Mulberry Cemetery
Ravenna, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located approximately two miles south of the Red River, Mulberry was established in the early 1880s as a small farming community. One of the first settlers in Mulberry was Civil War Captain Thomas Lightfoot and his family from Alabama, who bought several thousand acres of land along the Red River. In 1883, Thomas Lightfoot donated land to the Mulberry Community to be used for a cemetery and a one-room school. Eventually, Mulberry School closed and half of its property was sold by D.B. Deupree in 1951 to the cemetery. Joe C. Denton paid paid for the land as a gift to the community. The oldest part of the cemetery is located on the north end overlooking Mulberry Bottom. The first recorded burial on the property was that of two-year-old Allis May, in 1876. Other family burials date as far back as 1881. In the northwest corner of the original burial ground is the Mexican section shaded with trees. The first Mexican family to come to Mulberry was Ferman and Rossaria Portillo and their three children in 1902. Over the years the community experienced multiple natural disasters which took several lives. Some of these events include: The 1905 flooding of Mulberry Bottom, 1919 Mulberry Cyclone and the 1959 tornado which destroyed many of the tombstones and cemetery fence. There are several war veterans buried in the cemetery including the only known Civil War veteran, B.F. Moseley. All veterans are honored by the main gate entrance flag pole, which is set in a concrete stand embedded with the Veterans of Foreign Wars emblem. A cross and monument stand on the midpoint between the original burial ground and the site of the old Mulberry School in memory of those lost and unmarked graves. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Two miles from the Red River, the farming community of Mulberry took root in the early 1880s, its land anchored by Civil War veteran Captain Thomas Lightfoot, who donated ground for both a cemetery and a one-room school in 1883. The burial ground grew to hold pioneer families, a shaded "Mexican section" begun after the Portillo family arrived in 1902, and the victims of the floods, cyclones, and tornadoes that repeatedly struck Mulberry Bottom. A cross now stands over the unmarked graves between the old cemetery and the vanished schoolhouse.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a layered record of how a small Southern farming settlement was built, diversified, and battered by nature, preserving the names of families who might otherwise be forgotten.
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Related people
- · Thomas Lightfoot
Themes & tags
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