Pearl Cemetery
Pearl, Coryell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally named for Swayback Mountain, the community served by this cemetery was named Wayback through a clerical error in 1854. The name was changed to Pearl in 1890 for the young cousin of postmaster P. Davenport. In the early 1890s Pearl residents often were buried in the nearby Hope, Bee House and King Cemeteries. The earliest known burial in Pearl was that of Lottie May Manning who was interred in the Methodist churchyard in the spring of 1893. The first known burial in Pearl Cemetery was that of fourteen-year-old Lillian Keeton in June 1896. Lillian's relatives J.H. and Emily Keeton gave the land on which she was buried. They created a community cemetery by setting aside five acres of property as private burial plots and deeded 4.1 acres of that land to the school district to be used for public burials. Burials of interest include several of the influenza epidemic of 1918, including Dr. H.W. Lingswallow who contracted the disease while treating his stricken patients. Three Civil war veterans, as were veterans of World War I and World War II are interred here. World War I veteran Dr. F.B. King, born in North Carolina, was the grandson of Eleanor Houston King, a relative of General Sam Houston. Veterans of the Korean and the Vietnam Wars also are interred here. The Pearl Cemetery Association was formed in 1972. The cemetery continues to serve the community as a chronicle of pioneers and military veterans of Coryell County. (1998) Historic Texas Cemetery.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the rolling country of Coryell County, the community first called Wayback—a clerical mangling of "Swayback"—took the softer name Pearl in 1890 for a postmaster's young cousin. Its cemetery grew out of grief and generosity when the Keeton family set aside land after burying fourteen-year-old Lillian in 1896, later deeding acreage for public graves. The ground holds pioneers, victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic including a doctor who died treating the sick, and veterans of every American war from the Civil War through Vietnam.
Why it matters
A single rural cemetery like Pearl compresses the whole arc of frontier American life—settlement, epidemic, and generations of military service—into a few quiet acres.
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Related people
- · Lillian Keeton
- · Dr. H.W. Lingswallow
Related events
- · 1918 influenza epidemic
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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