Lee Cemetery  3-17-07

Lee Cemetery is located in northeastern Wood County on the east side of Highway 17 one mile southwest of the intersection of Highways 17 and 515 near Winnsboro. This cemetery, in terms of the number of burials, is one of the larger cemeteries in Wood County. It is also one of the oldest, having been established only six years after the creation of the county in 1850.

Like many other early cemeteries in Wood County, Lee Cemetery began as a family burial place. David Lee was born in March of 1828 in North Carolina. He and two brothers were farmers near Webster, in Wood County, prior to 1860. David Lee married his wife Susan about 1861 and they had six children. The cemetery originally covered about one acre but has grown considerably over the years with several additions of land.

Most prosperous rural families in this county in the 1840s through the 1860s had family cemeteries located on their property, usually near their home. There were several reasons who early settlers buried their dead in family plots. Often we hear of the isolation caused by the difficulties of travel caused by primitive roads and a lack of bridges over streams.

However, the primary reason was simply that when the first settlers arrived, there were no organized communities and cemeteries in existence. It only after communities and churches, along with cemeteries were established that the efficacy of burying people in a central location was realized by local residents.

This pattern was not unique to Wood County – it was common over the whole of the nation. Most cemeteries in the United States are the final outgrowth of individual burial places on the farms or near the homes of the earliest settlers.

Later, the burial places were connected with churches, a custom that is not entirely obsolete, especially in Wood County, where some church graveyards survive.

In towns with large churches, it was a common practice to bury prominent men beneath the church building during the 17th and 18th centuries, but the crowded conditions together with the fact that the practice was recognized as unsanitary caused it to be discontinued.

In villages and small towns, the church graveyards grew into disrepute many years ago because of the neglect they were suffering. There were no ongoing provisions for the care of such burial places and disorder and deterioration resulted.

Additionally, many early rural graves were marked with simple rock markers, if at all and no written records were kept of burial placements. As a result, there are hundreds of graves in dozens of cemeteries in Wood County that can no longer be located, for which no record exists.

An example would be burials associated with the defunct town of Webster, the nearest community that was contemporary with the beginning of Lee Cemetery. Webster was a prosperous and growing town, second only in the county to Quitman in size and population during the period of the 1850s through the 1870s. Not a single marker now remains standing in the cemetery known to have been associated with the town.

Detached cemeteries (those not associated with churches or other institutions) have been in use in the U.S. in since 1832 when Mt. Auburn was established in Boston. Philadelphia soon after set up some notable burial places and Greenwood in New York City had its beginning in 1842. From 1860 onward, churchyard burials gradually were discontinued in most areas of the nation.

We have gone from single burial plots on private property, to churchyards, to community cemeteries, and more recently, to “memorial parks” where graves are marked with flat metal markers instead of the customary gravestones. The evolution of Lee Cemetery has somewhat paralleled the national pattern, with one exception: it has never been known to have been directly associated with a church.

During the days when cemeteries were maintained by and in connection with churches, members and their families were entitled to a burial place. No expense was attached to the burial site except the actual cost of opening the grave. The absence of funds for upkeep under this system led to the inevitable deterioration of the property and the ultimate abandoning of this type of burial.

In the modern cemetery, lots are sold by the city or village, if owned by such a body, or by an association which has charge. A definite fee is charged for perpetual care and a charge is made for the opening of a grave and other duties performed. Generally speaking, cemeteries are supposed to be maintained with no idea of profit and this is the cases in a great majority of cases.

Throughout the country, there are many cemeteries maintained by the Masonic or other fraternities for their own members and their families. A fraternal order known as the Winnsboro Knights of Pythias Lodge once had a lodge building across the road from Lee Cemetery. A cemetery for members of that Order reportedly containing as many as 20 burials was established adjacent to the lodge building.

In 1929, the state highway department purchased a portion of the lodge property for the construction of State Highway 17. In 1930, the Winnsboro Knights of Pythias Lodge sold the remaining one acre of their property to J.W. Bennett. In the deed the Lodge stipulated that the “grantee is to remove from this plot of land all bodies now buried thereon, to such cemeteries or cemetery, as the parties who have had relatives buried on this lot of land may agree.”

Reportedly, all the graves were moved except one which is still located on the opposite side of the highway from Lee Cemetery. The grave site was reportedly fenced in and converted to pasture and cattle were allowed to destroy the grave marker and the grave mound.

This, unfortunately, has been the fate of many abandoned family, churchyard, and even community cemeteries in Wood County. However, through the efforts of the Texas and Wood County Historical Commissions, the public is awakening to the need for action to prevent further deterioration of many cemeteries and to restore those that need it. Lee Cemetery has been fortunate since it has seen active use and active care since its inception.