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Barker Cemetery

  Texas Historical Markers
Athens, TX, USA
 
    Texas State
Historical Marker
     Hester (Stovall) and Armstead R. Barker struggled to buy the lands they worked for their former masters, W. C. Larkin and Nat Coleman. When Mrs. Barker died in 1893, her husband set aside 4 previous acres of land to be used as a cemetery by the settlers of the Gum Creek community and their descendants. Although Hester was the first person to be interred on this land, several earlier graves were relocated from their original sites. John Ellick, originally buried on the Barker farm in 1866, is the oldest of these. During the Depression, Lazarus Barker was forced to offer the four acres for sale. Concerned citizens of the Gum Creek and Lease Springs communities formed the Barker Cemetery Association in August of 1933, and by December Barker deeded the land to the association. Others donated land for a driveway to the road. Cemetery maintenance proved difficult for the farming families of the area, but in 1958 the Barker Cemetery Improvement Club sparked new development. A chain link fence, an organized list of graves, and a brick entrance were all completed by 1985. In 1997, over 300 graves had been counted in Barker Cemetery. Still in use, the site is a monument to the vision of Hester and Armstead Barker. (1997)

This page last updated: 7/15/2008


 
   
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See other Henderson County Cemeteries:
Antioch Cemetery
Athens Cemetery
Smith Cemetery
Carroll Springs Cemetery
Brownsboro Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery
Fincastle Cemetery and Church
Goshen Cemetery
Owen Cemetery
Payne Springs Methodist Church and Cemetery
Red Hill Cemetery
Old Rock Hill Cemetery
New York Cemetery
Shelby Chapel Church and Cemetery
Thomas Boucher Wood Family Cemetery
Cottonwood Cemetery