Waldrop Cemetery
Carthage, Panola County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to local oral history, this community graveyard began in 1872. Jemima Guest Gentry, who had mentioned to her family that a nearby cedar grove would make a nice cemetery plot, died on June 8, 1872. Her family obtained permission from landowners James C. and Lucretia Harris Waldrop to bury Jemima at her chosen site. The Waldrops deeded the land to the community in 1885, and subsequent land donations enlarged the burial ground. As the final resting place of many pioneer settlers, Waldrop Cemetery serves as a reflection of the area's heritage.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the years after the Civil War, East Texas communities like this one in Panola County were still being knit together by the families who settled its piney woods. Local memory holds that the graveyard began in 1872 when a settler was laid to rest in a cedar grove she had admired, on land the Waldrop family later deeded to the community in 1885. As neighbors added parcels, it grew into a resting place for many of the area's pioneer families.
Why it matters
Rural community cemeteries like this preserve the names and stories of the ordinary settlers who built frontier Texas, one homestead at a time.
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Related people
- · Jemima Guest Gentry
- · James C. Waldrop
- · Lucretia Harris Waldrop
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Allison Chapel United Methodist Church
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The Rev. Littleton Fowler, an early Methodist missionary in East Texas, is believed to have organized this congregation between 1837 and 1839, when Texas was a young republic. First called Bethesda Church, it worshiped on land given by Purviance Williams before taking its present name to honor Samuel G. Allison, who donated the building site in 1882. Tradition holds it the oldest active church in Panola County.
Isaac R. Youngblood
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Born about 1793, Isaac R. Youngblood moved from Georgia to Texas before 1846 and became a Panola County pioneer, helping lay out local roads as an overseer. In 1858 he deeded two acres here for a school and church, granting use of a nearby spring as well. Tradition holds that he died after falling into his 90-foot well and was buried in an unmarked grave.
Ebenezer United Methodist Church
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