Mount Gilead Cemetery, Keller, Texas, Tarrant county. (original) (raw)

Mount Gilead Cemetery
Photo courtesy David Cole, July 2011

Historical Marker Text

Mount Gilead Cemetery

This burial ground originally served a pioneer settlement of related families who migrated to the area from Missouri in 1847 as members of the Peters Colony. They were headed by a widow, Permelia Allen (d. 1866), who is buried here in an unmarked grave. This tract, adjacent to the Mount Gilead Baptist Church and School, was first owned by her sons-in-law Daniel Barcroft (1812-81) and Iraneous Neace (1816-79). The earliest marked gravesite is that of William Joyce (1836-54). Homemade grave markers here reflect the pioneer lifestyle the early settlers.
(1981)

Mount Gilead Cemetery Historical Marker
Photo courtesy David Cole, July 2011

Mount Gilead Cemetery entrance
Photo courtesy David Cole, July 2011

Pioneer Stone Burial Cairns Marker
Photo courtesy David Cole, July 2011

Historical Marker: Bancroft Road at J.T. Ottinger Rd., Mt. Gilead Cemetery, Keller

Pioneer Stone Burial Cairns

Scattered throughout many of the pioneer cemeteries in Texas are unusual stone structurers, or burial cairns, built by the early settlers to memorialize their dead. Primarily surface structures of native stone, the cairns vary in design and workmanship. Their use, however, is representative of traditional burial customs prevalent in the South during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although their specific purpose and origin are subject to theory, cairns such as these are outstanding examples of pioneer lore and tradition.
1983

Mount Gilead Cemetery

Graves & Tombstones

Photo Gallery

Note the small stones
Photo courtesy David Cole, July 2011

"I think they were using ground penetrating radar or some similar technology to figure out where these unmarked graves are and the small stones were the "hits." I finally found something on Google. http://mountaingenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/04/ unmarked-graves-raise-historical.html But it says "outside the cemetery proper" and this was definitely inside the fence. Hmm." - David Cole

See Dowsing For Graves Witching For Water by Dana Goolsby

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