Old Cedar Community
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settled in 1848 by Grayson County pioneers, who reclaimed land from wilderness, raiding Indians and hardships of frontier life soon created need for a cemetery, established the same year. The plots were free to any person. Many noted settlers are buried here, including one Union and 18 Confederate veterans of the Civil War. Of some 400 graves, half are marked. After community was well established, a school-- Cedar Academy -- was organized in 1871. D. H. Dumas gave the land for a 3-acre campus. Enrollment reached 79 in 1872. Here, besides the usual subjects, students learned how to make ink and split goose-quills for pens. Later name was changed to Cedar High School. It merged with the Tom Bean District in 1937. Cedar Methodist Church was organized in 1871. The congregation worshipped in a log house on property deeded by J. G. Vestal and Col. J. R. Cole. A half mile south of Church of Whitemound-Cedar Road, a 7-acre tract donated by Mr. and Mrs. B. M. Carr was used as a camp ground for revivals. Each summer people would come for miles, pitch their tents there, and attend services under a brush arbor. A frame church built in 1891 was destroyed by a tornado in 1960. The present structure was dedicated October, same year.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settled in 1848 by Grayson County pioneers who reclaimed land from wilderness amid Indian raids and frontier hardship, Old Cedar quickly needed a cemetery—still holding some 400 graves, including one Union and eighteen Confederate veterans. As the community took root it built Cedar Academy in 1871, where students learned to make ink and split goose-quills alongside their lessons, and organized the Cedar Methodist Church the same year. Camp-ground revivals under brush arbors drew families from miles around each summer.
Why it matters
Old Cedar captures the full arc of a frontier community—cemetery, school, and church—showing how ordinary settlers wove permanence out of raw land in a single generation.
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Related people
- · D.H. Dumas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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