While located on cemetery grounds where several of those named are buried, this memorial does not mark a grave of any kind.
The memorial is just south of section of the cemetery with visible headstones. It is of gray granite, sloped at the top for better reading, and it says:
In Loving Memory
I. Capt. R.W. Carpenter B. 1832
II. J.H Carpenter B. 1859
III. Robert W. Carpenter B. 1882 Wife Rubye Fox B. 1888
Dedicated 1992 by Sons
IV. R.W. Jr. B. 1910 -- Roy B. 1912 -- Max B. 1915 -- Rex B. 1921
Captain R.W. Carpenter was the benefactor for the land here, giving an idea as to why this memorial was placed. An interpretive sign that is also at the south end of the cemetery provides some background for the cemetery and the school and church that occupied that now-empty space that you see on the other side of the driveway:
Bethany Cemetery
(1877 – Present)
Bethany Cemetery is historically associated with the Bethany Christian Church and public school. The church supported Add Ran College, now Texas Christian University, for several years. R.W. Carpenter (1832-1898), and early Plano settler and Confederate Civil War veteran, founded the church, school, and cemetery. The first burial here was for an infant named Walter Clark who died January 4, 1877. Carpenter’s own young daughter, Mary Katie, died March 14, 1878, and was the second burial. Several other members of the Carpenter family, including R.W. Carpenter himself, are interred in this cemetery, as are many early area residents.
The northern one-third of the property contains several marked burials. Elaborate marble spire or scroll monuments, some with decorative curbing, mark many graves, particularly those of early members of the Carpenter family. Others are marked by more modest marble or granite monuments, although a few are marked only by cinder blocks mounted in the ground. The church, school, and a teacher’s dormitory once stood in the southern portion of the cemetery, and evidence of these structures is still visible on the ground. Although this part of the cemetery exhibits no markers, unmarked burials are reported to be present in this area.
The church was founded in 1876 and enjoyed a sizable membership at the turn of the twentieth century. However, as later improvements to roads provided better access to town, membership dwindles. The church disbanded ca. 1933, and the abandoned church building, school, and neighboring structures were eventually razed.
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It's not clear as to which "sons" put the memorial into place, but they are probably sons of those referenced by IV, none of whom are with us in 2018. The first two are buried here, while the others are buried in Limestone County, some distance south of Plano. Captain Robert Washington Carpenter is atop the family tree, and John Henry Carpenter was one of his sons. Robert W. Carpenter appears to have been one of John Henry Carpenter's sons, and Robert W., Jr, Roy, Max, and Rex appear to have been Robert W. Carpenter's sons.