Shady Grove Cemetery
Paris, Lamar County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Shady Grove Cemetery According to an account by Dr. J.E. Fuller (1862-1940), as reported by local historian Ed H. McCuistion (1867-1946) in a 1921 column in The Paris News, the first person buried here was a youth with the surname of Young who became ill and died while in the company of a Captain Beauchamp on Tollet's Prairie in 1844. He knew of his impending death and asked to be laid to rest here in the "beautiful grove near the crossing" at Brushy Creek. This shaded area was used for camp meetings by traveling preachers and, according to McCuistion, was deeded for this purpose by Turner B. (1800-1863) and Ann Eliza (1813-1894) Edmunson in 1847. Although Young's grave is unmarked today, other early burials include those of Mary Fincher (1852), three-year-old Matthew E.R. Hoover (1855), Aaron Fincher (1857) and Sallie V. Jennings (1857). The Edmunson's 1847 donation included the tract on which the cemetery is situated, as well as the grounds of the Shady Grove Methodist Church, which grew from the early camp meetings along the creek. South of and adjacent to Shady Grove Cemetery is an African American cemetery, also known as Shady Grove. Its earliest inscription dates to 1875. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This shaded grove near a creek crossing began as a resting place in 1844 for a dying young traveler who asked to be buried in the beautiful spot, and it soon became ground for camp meetings led by traveling frontier preachers. A local family deeded the land in the 1840s, and a Methodist church grew directly from those open-air revivals. An adjoining African American burial ground, its earliest marked grave from 1875, tells of the Black community that lived and worshiped alongside.
Why it matters
The cemetery captures how faith, frontier settlement, and separate Black and white communities took shape together in nineteenth-century Texas.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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