Yates and Methodist Protestant Cemeteries
Cooper, Delta County, Texas
Marker Inscription
George Yates (1807-1886), his wife Mary Polly Wallace Yates (1809-1886), and their family migrated to Texas in 1846. They settled in an area of the newly-formed Hopkins County that would later become part of Delta County. George Yates raised livestock on the 976 acres of land he owned. Mary Yates, the 15-year-old daughter of George and Polly Yates, died in 1855. She was buried here on a hill near their log house. Her grave marks the origin of the family and community graveyard called The Yates Cemetery. Over the years, thirteen burials too place; the last was that of William Henry Chesnut, who died in 1923. In 1887, G. L. Harper and his wife Emily Frances Yates Harper deeded one-half acre of land to the Methodist Protestant church for a graveyard. The donation included the Yates Cemetery measuring one-fourth acre, which was given back to the family in 1901. Dr. D. T. Robinson and his wife, Eliza Robinson are buried west of here; theirs are the only makred graves at this site. Although two other graves are known to exist, it is believed there are several more unmarked graves. Both cemeteries are maintained by descendants of those buried here. (1996)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
George and Mary Polly Wallace Yates brought their family to Texas in 1846 and settled newly formed Hopkins County land that would later become part of Delta County, raising livestock on nearly a thousand acres. When their fifteen-year-old daughter Mary died in 1855, she was buried on a hill near the family's log house, beginning the graveyard that still bears the family name. A later gift of land added the adjoining Methodist Protestant cemetery, and both burial grounds remain in the care of descendants.
Why it matters
Pioneer family cemeteries like this preserve the intimate human record of frontier settlement, where a single grave could mark the origin of a whole community.
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Related people
- · George Yates
- · Mary Polly Wallace Yates
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Turbeville, Sam B.
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Born in Mississippi in 1856, Sam B. Turbeville came with his wife Saluda to Texas in 1879 and settled in Delta County as a farmer. Elected county sheriff in a contested special election in 1897, he served several terms, counseling young people and enforcing Prohibition. His career culminated in appointment as U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Texas.
Oaklawn Cemetery
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The first burials in Cooper were made on a hill near Dr. J. A. Blackwell's home — reputedly beginning with the young daughter of Dr. R. C. Andrews — but the site soon proved unsuitable. In 1891 Asa White donated five acres for a new cemetery, and most of the old graves were moved here, including the community's oldest surviving monument to Mary Cumming, born in 1791. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows tended the grounds and added land until Oaklawn Cemetery was chartered in 1959.
Delta County
Cooper, TX
Carved from parts of Lamar and Hopkins counties, Delta County was created on July 29, 1870, and organized that October during the Reconstruction era. Its name reflects its triangular shape, wedged between the forks of the Sulphur River, with the town of Cooper chosen as county seat.
Hiram Rattan
Cooper, TX
Hiram Rattan, born in 1805, came to Texas in 1835 and settled on his brother Larkin's land grant—ground that would later become the city of Paris—before both families moved to Delta County in 1839. Hiram earned two land grants raising grain and livestock, while Larkin chased the California Gold Rush before returning to Illinois. The family knew frontier hardship firsthand: four relatives were killed in Indian raids, and the Civil War split their loyalties without shaking their devotion to Texas.