Folk cemeteries: A grave situation Page: 3 of 40
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A GRAVE SITUATION IN GRAYSON COUNTY, TEXAS
The pun in the title of this paper concerning cemeteries
is not intended. Many of the older cemeteries in Grayson
County have been considerably neglected. Much of the material
evidence found in the traditional cemetery no longer exists in
Grayson County. The influx of Anglo migration into Grayson
County was mainly from the Upper South section of the Middle
Atlantic sub-culture. Many of the early settlers came from
Missouri while the earliest settlement was in eastern Grayson
County at Kentucky Town. Most of the early settlers came to
this area to settle in what was then the Peters Colony. The
study was conducted in similar fashion as two previous studies
by Lynette Schroeder and Peggy Gough. Their previous studies
were used as guidelines for my field studies.
Donald G. Jeane provides an accurate description of what
he terms the Upland South folk cemetery. The characteristics
of the Upper Southern cemetery includes "scraping," mounding
the graves, separate family polts, east-west axis of graves,
uninscribed markers, shells and other diverse adornments,
sheds, and vegetation including cedars, gardenias, and crepe
myrtle.1
"Scraping" is the traditional custom of removing all the
grass from the cemetery. Traditionally, this was done once
or twice a year and served also as a social gathering.2 In
the cemeteries visited in Grayson County several had tables
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Templeton, Charles. Folk cemeteries: A grave situation, paper, July 1976; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc851793/m1/3/: accessed June 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.