Kit Cemetery - Irving, TX
N 32° 48.543 W 096° 55.686
14S E 693981 N 3632018
The Kit Cemetery, also known as the "Old Kit Cemetery," was the cemetery for the now-vanished Kit Community, and is located in the southeast corner of Oak Grove Memorial Cemetery, 1413 E Irving Blvd, Irving, TX.
Waymark Code: WMKXHJ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 06/08/2014
Views: 2
There are nearly 650 burials here, maybe more. The cemetery is actually still active, but burials are limited only to descendants of those already buried here. There are three very special signs near the road through it, commemorating its origins, history, and importance. The latest is a Texas Historical Marker which says:
Settlers came to this area near the Elm and West Forks of the Trinity River in the mid-1800s. Isaac Henry "Ike" Story built a grocery store in what became the community of Gorbit (also known by similar spellings). Ike Story was the postmaster for "Gorbet" from 1888 until 1894, when the name was changed to Kit; Ike remained postmaster. In 1904, the Kit post office closed and moved to Irving. Ike Story is among the pioneers buried at Old Kit Cemetery.
This community burial ground began in 1896, when a family passing through stopped to care for their sick child. When the child died, they asked landowner David Chadwell Britain if they could bury their child in the grove of trees where they had camped. Britain donated land for a community cemetery. The child’s gravesite and the name of the family are now unknown. Britain also deeded one acre adjoining the cemetery to New Providence Baptist Church, stipulating that the land was to be used continuously for church purposes. Several congregations have occupied the site.
Early in the cemetery’s development, members of Kit and surrounding communities chose their own plots, stepping off plots rather than making precise measurements. Many early settlers are interred here, including Aunt Kit King, attributed by some sources to be the namesake for the Kit Community. Many veterans with service dating from the Civil War to present are buried here, as well as early French, German and Belgian settlers. Old Kit Cemetery, Inc., formed in 1947 and incorporated in 1949, continues to care for the cemetery. Burials are now restricted to direct descendants of early settlers. The cemetery continues as a final resting place and a chronicle of a rural community now incorporated into Irving.
An Irving Heritage Society sign from 1998 provides some complementary information, and photos of the graves of Ike Story, W.M. and Bertha King, and Roland Cox, are in the gallery (D.C. Britain is in Sowers Cemetery, not far from here.). It says:
In 1896, D.C. Britain donated an acre and a half of land for a cemetery when an unknown family traveling west needed to bury a child. This was the first person buried in Kit Cemetery. The location of this grave is unknown.
Many pioneers are buried here including Isaac H. "Ike" Story who had a general store and post office in what became the Kit Community. The graves of W.M. King and his wife, the first superintendent and one of the first teachers hired for the Irving schools, and R.S. Cox, an Irving constable for many years, are located here. Veterans from every war beginning with the Civil War are interred here as well as French, Japanese and German settlers. Fraternal organizations represented are Woodmen of the World, Masons, Odd Fellows, Eastern Star and Rebeccas. On October 29, 1947, the Old Kit Cemetery Association was formed by descendants of people buried here. It was incorporated and chartered by the State of Texas in 1949 to oversee the care of the cemetery. Burials are now restricted to descendants of early settlers.
Finally, a 2003 Irving, Texas Centennial Marker rounds out the cemetery's background:
Settlement in the area of this pioneer cemetery began around 1850. Gorbit, a farming community that grew up here before the Civil War, had a post office by 1889. The community and post office were renamed "Kit" in 1894.
D.C. Britain, whose family arrived in the area in 1859, donated 1½ acres of his land to the Kit Community for a cemetery in 1896. Over the years, members of many early families such as Story, Beaufford, Keeling, Tennison, Kitts, Smith, Cox, King, and Boinard were interred in the burial ground.
Although the nearby City of Irving absorbed the Kit Community by the mid-20th century, the cemetery, a remnant of the small settlement, has retained its identity and is still in use.
City, Town, or Parish / State / Country: Irving, TX
Approximate number of graves: 650+
Cemetery Status: Active
Cemetery Website: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
Post an original, un-copywrited picture of the Cemetery into this Waymark gallery, along with any observations about the cemetery.