Pleasant Grove Cemetery
Pleasant Grove, Mills County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for the live oaks banking Simms Creek, Pleasant Grove was settled by Civil War veterans from both the North and South. The farm of Tom Berry (1844-1926) of Alabama adjoined this cemetery, opened with the burial of his daughter Mary (1872-1876). Pleasant Grove Methodist Church and a community school also stood nearby. Donations maintained the site until a cemetery association was organized in 1969. Church trustees added 15 acres to the burial ground in 1970. In over 400 graves, many unmarked, lie early settlers and their descendants.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Shaded by live oaks along Simms Creek, Pleasant Grove was settled after the Civil War by veterans of both the Union and Confederate armies, who put their old enmities aside to build a community. The cemetery opened in 1876 with the burial of Tom Berry's young daughter, and alongside it stood a Methodist church and a school; today more than 400 graves, many unmarked, hold the area's early settlers.
Why it matters
It is a quiet monument to reconciliation, where former enemies from both sides of the Civil War settled side by side and now rest in the same frontier ground.
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Related people
- · Tom Berry
Themes & tags
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