Mr. Patrick and the Graveyard Mystery

Written by Tom Fowler

Since relating Great-grandfather Tom Patrick’s civil war story to his history class last year, Gary Patrick had become intensely interested in the Patrick family tree. Recently, with the help of an internet ancestry site, plus a few hours of a professional genealogist’s time, Mr. Patrick had discovered that the remains of one of Great-grandfather’s many brothers, Robert, was buried in an unnamed cemetery in East Texas, a few miles outside of Kilgore.

Robert Patrick was, from what he had learned, not as interesting or colorful as Tom and Uncle John, another of Gary’s recent ancestors and the subject of another story which he related to his students only a couple of weeks ago. As he drove up to the old graveyard on this hot, dusty East Texas October morning, he chuckled. Gary knew this would more than likely not be material for a third story to his advanced class concerning the Patrick family. Still, he was grateful for the superintendent’s permission to allow him to be away during conference week. He chuckled again when he thought of his threat to retire if permission was denied.

Mr. Patrick had purchased a new head marker for Great-uncle Robert after he learned the grave was unmarked. Robert had been a cotton farmer and horse rancher in East Texas and, as his brother Tom, owned a few horses. But, he and wife Lucille lost everything during the War Between the States and found themselves in (what would become in 1872) the city of Kilgore after the conflict ended. Robert worked for the railroad and served a couple of terms as mayor of the young city. Lucille took in sewing. Robert died in 1905 and Lucille in 1911. Once again, Gary lamented there was not much here to share with his students.

Well, there may be a few things to share, he thought. The old cemetery, identified only by its address, sat up on a hill overlooking what used to be a stagecoach road but now was a two lane state highway. The cemetery used to be on land owned by a Methodist church but the church had burned down many years ago, destroying the cemetery records with it. The last person buried here, according to newspaper records, died in 1936. However, an old record from Gregg County indicated that the small cemetery was mapped with 300 burial plots. Mrs. Culverson, the genealogist Gary had hired to research Robert’s burial location, found markers on 295 of the graves. Five were unmarked but it was assumed there were deceased persons in them because the youngest marker indicated a death date of 1936. It was further assumed that Robert was buried here because Lucille’s was one of the 295 marked graves. However, all of the graves around hers were marked and none of them was husband Robert.

So, Gary Patrick entered the small, modest graveyard. Most of the headstones were flat; only a few were the large, ornate ones common to the pre –World War II era. Unless you paid close attention and did not realize where you were, it was possible to forget you were in a cemetery. Only the rusty gate and deteriorated fencing affirmed that Gary was on sacred ground. The old gravel path leading to the corner where the church had been was still visible if you looked closely.

After a long pause, Gary looked around for the five unmarked graves. He quickly noticed that the cemetery consisted of 30 rows of ten burial plots each. He also noted with interest that the oldest graves, marked with stones indicating death dates as early as 1843, were in the corner farthest from the church. Gary thought that was thoughtful preplanning: Begin the burials far out and work in towards the church. Interestingly enough, he found an unmarked grave in this area and he noted it as Grave no. 1.

Mr. Patrick continued looking around. After leaving the area of the oldest graves, he saw that the death dates on the markers were no longer in chronological sequence. As he surveyed unmarked grave no. 2 several rows from the back of the cemetery, he noticed the graves surrounding it on all sides were marked with husbands and wives together with children on either side of mother and father. Gary soberly thought of how many persons died in childhood in previous generations, before the advent of modern medications and the medical breakthroughs of the last half of the 20th century.

Close to Lucille Patrick’s marker, Gary found what he denoted as Grave no. 3. He noticed that this unmarked plot was between the markers of a man named Nelson who passed away in 1860 and a woman named Nolan, whose marker informed that she died of tuberculosis in 1872. All the marked graves in this section of the cemetery were in alphabetical order by name. Gary wondered how this came to be and why.

Moving towards the front of the graveyard, the markers were obviously newer and not as soiled with 130 plus years of dirt and grime.

The area Gary walked through now was toward the edge of the graveyard farthest from the church path and shaded with several gnarled old trees, just a little closer in from the 1840s markers. The unmarked grave, Grave no. 4, as he would note it, sat at the foot of one of those trees. The stones around them indicated that this area was occupied with persons of prominence. One stone indicated the resting place of a government official of the Republic of Texas. Several more were denoted as pastors of the small church which once dominated this property; still another was the resting place of a turn of the century member of the United States Senate.

The final unmarked grave was found near the cemetery gate. This was perhaps the most sobering sight in a day filled with sobering sights. The stones were all of children, teenaged and younger. Upon close inspection, Gary found a weathered stone, half buried by dust and time, naming this area of the cemetery as the Orphan’s Corner.

As Gary Patrick finished his inspection of the cemetery, he walked back to the trees and sat on a bench not far from Grave no. 4. Studying his notes, Gary realized there was indeed much to tell his class about the old cemetery in Kilgore, TX.

Mr. Patrick was back to work the next week and he could not wait to share with his students what he had learned. Not only did he have a mystery for them to solve, but also the old, unnamed Methodist cemetery was a story in itself.

Mr. Patrick related the whole story in detail. April Park, along with Justin Miller one his two star pupils, was especially interested. After Mr. Patrick finished the story with Grave no. 5 in the Orphan’s Corner, she said, “I think I can tell you where your Uncle Robert is buried.”

The class fell silent as Mr. Patrick smiled and said, “Go on.”