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Willowhole Cemetery

North Zulch, Madison County, Texas

Marker Inscription

This community was settled in the 1850s and named for a nearby spring-fed hollow. The cemetery served as a community graveyard for the town, which until the early 1900s contained businesses, schools, and churches. The first recorded burial here was that of Mary J. Burts in 1866. A cemetery association was founded in 1917 about the time annual July 4th picnics began. In 1977 a fund for perpetual maintenance was established. Among the more than 2600 people buried here are pioneers of the area and their descendants and veterans of conflicts from the Civil War to Vietnam. (1994)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Settled in the 1850s and named for a nearby spring-fed hollow, the town of Willowhole once held businesses, schools, and churches before fading in the early 1900s. Its cemetery outlived the town: the first recorded burial was Mary J. Burts in 1866, and more than 2,600 people now rest here, from area pioneers to veterans of every conflict from the Civil War to Vietnam. A cemetery association formed in 1917, around the time of the annual Fourth of July picnics.

Why it matters

Willowhole Cemetery is the enduring memory of a vanished Texas town, holding generations of settlers and soldiers long after the community around it disappeared.

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Related people

  • · Mary J. Burts

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryGhost TownsMemorial

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