FIRST Grave in Rockhill Cemetery - Franklin County, TX
N 33° 04.981 W 095° 09.080
15S E 299201 N 3662549
The headstone for Mary Hitchens, who died around 1876, notes that her burial was the first in Rockhill Cemetery.
Waymark Code: WMYYNZ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/12/2018
Views: 0
Mary's grave is marked by a small, marble obelisk that was placed here at an undetermined later date. It simply reads "Mary Hitchens", "12 Yrs. Old", "Circa 1876", and "First Grave in This Cemetery". Her parents, O.A. and Rachel Hitchens, are buried nearby, and a 1977 Texas Historical Marker provides some background, although it dates her burial to 1875:
This burial ground served the farming community of Rockhill, settled after the Civil War (1861-65). The high childhood mortality rate of that era accounts for many graves here. Earliest known burial was Mary Hitchens, who died about 1875 at age 12. Oldest dated stone marks the grave of two-year-old Willie Terrell (d. 1881) Of the 148 known graves, 90 are unmarked. A cemetery committee bought the site in 1919. Like many rural settlements, Rockhill began to decline in the 1930s Depression. The community's churches and school vanished, but the cemetery remains a link to its past.
FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group
Date of FIRST: 01/01/1876
More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]
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