Lonesome Dove - final rest Traditional Cache
Lonesome Dove - final rest
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Close parking available next door at the church. BYOP.
I love old cemeteries. I like to walk around imagining life a hundred years ago. This one has many old and unique headstones dating from the middle to late 1800's to present. Many graves are unmarked, or just marked with a flat stone. Lots of history here and at the church. There are no posted hours and no lock on the gate.
Just click for an interesting article on this cemetery.
One interesting stone is that of Malinda Hill. "She was grandmother's grandmother who married a Dwight who was killed in the Civil War. She remarried a Hill," recounts Mr. Cook. Her stone was lovingly made by a son, who on the back carved a dove and the initials of all her sons: "Our mother, R.B. & A.A. & F.M. & J.J. & J.M.H. Dwight." Mrs. Hill was 49 when she died in 1870.
Other stones hint of other stories. "Our Nurseling" reads one stone, and "Babe, 1867" is hand-carved on another. A marker for Joanna (1880-1889), the daughter of J.H. and Texana Williams (1849-1899), caught my eye, as I had recently seen Texana Williams' stone at Mount Gilead Cemetery in Keller and had remembered her name as being interesting. (Mount Gilead church, formed in 1852, was an offshoot of Lonesome Dove Baptist Church, and you see many of the same family names in both cemeteries. There is a virtual cache in that cemetery. On Joanna's stone are these words: "She was too good, too gentle and fair; To dwell in this cold world of care."
Until six or seven years ago, no one kept an official record of who is buried at Lonesome Dove. "People used to just go out and dig and hole and plop 'em in it," Mr. Cook says. A rock would be placed at the grave to mark it. A family may have planned to have a headstone made when a maker could be found, or maybe they couldn't afford one. Sometimes, no stones were placed or they were moved over the years. "We've dug graves where there were no markers and hit old graves," Mr. Cook recalls. Burials still take place at the cemetery. Plots are free, but a $400 donation is requested for upkeep. Families that cannot pay are not charged.
Enjoy, be respectful.
Congratulations to Italian Stallion for FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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