Rush Creek Community Cemetery
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for a stream that flowed through the area, the community of Rush Creek contained a school, two churches, and a cemetery. The oldest recorded burial is that of Harry Houston, infant son of John and Mary Houston, who died in 1875. The site contains 110 graves; nearly half are those of children under 20 years of age. Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War and World War I. Rush Creek community declined in the 1930s when families left due to land erosion. Still active, the cemetery is maintained by descendants of those buried here. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Named for the stream that once ran through it, the Rush Creek community had a school, two churches, and this cemetery, whose oldest recorded grave is that of infant Harry Houston, who died in 1875. Of its 110 graves, nearly half hold children who died before the age of twenty — a sobering measure of frontier life — and among the adults rest veterans of the Civil War and World War I. The community faded away in the 1930s as land erosion drove families off, but descendants still tend the cemetery today.
Why it matters
The graves record both the heavy toll of childhood illness on rural families and the quiet disappearance of a farming community undone by worn-out land.
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Themes & tags
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