If you wander out this way
And down this dead end road
Attending that irony's ok --
It is our mortal load.
Wander admid the markers
Worn blank and newly sank
Just teasers, I fear of history
Until research fills some blanks
Polly Peaks-Elmore should be commended for her hard work, and I will quote her research in a moment.
This is a lovely country cemetery with a picturesque red-roofed chapel. It's still in use (new graves were in evidence on our 2010 visit), and shows, aesthetically, local history in grave styles.
The Historical Marker (at the coordinates) reads:
SHARP CEMETERY
AND ROCK CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH OF CHRIST
Emily LeSeur Haynes Sharp (1824-1880) came to Texas from Alabama with her first husband, William Glenn Haynes. They settled in Harrison County, where they owned a large amount of land and operated a cotton gin. William Haynes died in 1849, and three years later Emily married Augustus V. Sharp (1810-1868).
The Sharp family moved to this area in 1859 and settled along the Lampasas River. When their six-year-old daughter, Sarah, died in 1864, she was buried on the family farm. Four years later Augustus Sharp died and was laid to rest next to his daughter.
In 1879 Emily Sharp deeded three acres of land surrounding the graves to establish a community cemetery. The G.W.Dockery family deeded another 1.9 acres for church and school purposes. The Rock Creek Baptist Church of Christ was established in 1882, and in 1905 the members built a sanctuary.
Among the interments in the Sharp Cemetery are those of Sharp, Haynes, and Dockery family members; veterans of several wars; and a number of infants and small children. Many of the earliest graves are marked only with field stones, and some are surrounded by 19th-century rock fences. (1991)
LaJaun Ray, sponsor, & Polly Peaks-Elmore, applicant
ABOUT THE CEMETERY (source Polly Peaks-Elmore, USGEN Digital Cemetery Project all rights reserved (
visit link)
Bell County, TX - SHARP CEMETERY
(11 August 1990)
SUBMITTED BY: Polly Peaks-Elmore. All content used by permission.
LOCATION: South of Killeen, Texas, off SH 195 (formerly FM 440). Sharp Cemetery land was donated by Emily H. Sharp on May 14, 1879.
Rock fence around early graves was to keep the cattle from grazing and walking on the burial places.
SHARP CEMETERY and ROCK CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH OF CHRIST
Narrative History [for Burial Listings, please see link]
Text From About 1990:
One hundred and eleven years ago, May 14, 1879, Emily Haynes Sharp appeared before A. H. Ray, Notary Public, Bell County, delivering a signed Deed of Writing (Note 1) designating 5.911 acres of land for the purpose of church, school and cemetery, known as the Sharp Cemetery.
This legal instrument was not recorded until 8:30 A.M. July 29, 1889. Sharp Cemetery and Rock Creek Baptist Church of Christ are located 9.3 miles from Elms Road to turn-off of SH 195 on Sharp Cemetery Road; from SH 195 to the cemetery is 1.9 miles. The Lampasas River is approximately 100 yards from the Sharp Cemetery and the church building.
South of Killeen, Texas, off SH 195 (formerly FM 440), Sharp Cemetery is found in the R. J. Calder's Abstract 215, adjacent to the Rock Creek Baptist Church of Christ building. Mrs. Sharp gave 3 acres for the cemetery, 1.911/4840 acres for the Rock Creek Baptist Church (Missionary Baptist Church), and 1 acre for a school (Old District 74)(Note 2). There is no evidence remaining of the school or school building. Only the land is intact.
Life was a struggle for the early pioneers, but those who settled the West Bell County area had courage, self-reliance, faith and determi- nation to face anything or anybody as is evident by Emily Haynes Sharp. Emily Haynes Sharp deeded the land approximately 1 1/2 years before she died for the sole purpose of school house, church and grave yard. Mrs.
Sharp was ahead of her time to be able to grant lands for church, school and cemetery. As testimony of headstone from the same era a woman was the property of her husband; e.g., LUCINDA H. wife of G. W. DOCKERY, Born: February 22, 1837, Died: June 28, 1905 and LUERECIA wife of G. W. McDuffie, Born: June 16, 1857, Died: March 2, 1885.
[As of 1990] There are 338 interments in Sharp Cemetery and the cemetery is still growing in the year [2010 -bj]. The graves in Sharp Cemetery all face East. Sharp Cemetery is surrounded by Cedar trees. The old headstones and field rocks marking the earlier graves are now out numbered by the granite grave markers; as are the rock fences surrounding the earlier grave now have been joined with other plots being marked with cement curbs. There are a number of unidentified graves only marked with a field stone at the head of each graves. Early settlers would build a rock fence to keep the cattle from grazing on the graves which Sharp Cemetery is no exception.
The oldest grave is Sarah Sharp, the daughter of Emily Haynes and Augustus V. Sharp, who was buried in 1864, making the Sharp Cemetery 126 years old (Note 3) . As Texas didn't record documents until sometime in 1903 there is no other public record of SARAH SHARP
except her headstone. The second oldest grave is that of AUGUSTUS V. SHARP, Emily Haynes Sharp's second husband, who died March 31, 1868, four years after the interment of SARAH SHARP.
There were several graves in place 15 years prior to Sharp Cemetery being deeded as a burying ground. To put this region in perspective, this rural community was active for at least 18 years before the settlement of Killeen (1882), a neighboring town to the North of Sharp Cemetery.
Certificate of Death for Ben F. Daniel document the name of the cemetery (Note 4) as Sharp Cemetery.
It was stipulated if ever this tract of land shall cease to be for the use and benefit of the Missionary Baptist then the same lands shall revert to the original grantor or their heirs. At some point in time the parcel of land that was given by Mrs. Sharp reverted back to her heirs, G. W. Dockry (sic), H. S. Dockry (sic), G. W. Dockry, Jr. (sic) and R. R. (Ryland Randolph) Dockry (sic). On November 17, 1905, Emily Haynes Sharp's heirs signed an instrument deeding the tract of land unto Rock Creek Baptist Church of Christ with the stipulation that if this tract of land should cease to be for the use and benefit of church then the same lands would go to the original grantors or their heirs (Note 5).
The Rock Creek Church of Christ or the Baptist Church of Christ at Rock Creek met in conference Saturday before the 3d Sabbath on June 1882. Preaching was by Brother W. R. Denson (Note 6).
The church building was built in 1905 and is known as the Baptist Church of Christ at Rock Creek or Rock Creek Baptist Church. The church received its name from the fact that there is a rock floor in the bottom of the Lampasas River adjacent to the church building. The Lampasas River was used to baptize new members of the church This method of Christian sacrament was used from 1881 to about 1970 (Note 7).
As early as June 1894 the Church members were discussing selecting a place and building a brush Arbor.
Descendants, of some of those buried in the Sharp Cemetery, met and organized a cemetery association and set the first Saturday in May as the regular working day which is still observed today. The first association president was G. W. Dockery, Sr., who served until
1921. He was followed by J. L Gower, R. R. Dockery, Joe Gower, Clarence Griggs, Emmitt Gower, Bob Haynes, G. A. Gore, Bill Gore, Dick Cosper (Note 8). The current president (as of this [1990] writing) of the Cemetery Association is Bennie Ray Gower.
Members of Rock Creek Church and Sharp Cemetery organization designated the church as a Memorial Place on May 6, 1967, for revivals, funerals, and practice services (Note 9).
RESEARCHED & WRITTEN BY: Polly Peaks-Elmore 3 September 1990
FOOTNOTES
1. Deed, Volume 70, Page 555/556, Bell County Courthouse, Belton, Texas 76513.
2. Copies of Bell County Cards listing how many acres and what Volume and Page each document is found. Bell County Courthouse, Belton, Texas 76513.
3. Sharp Cemetery listing, cataloged by Mariette Taylor, LaJuan Ray and Polly Peaks-Elmore, August 1990.
4. Certificate of Death, Ben F. Daniel, name of cemetery or cre- matory: SHARP CEMETERY, dated December 28, 1966.
5. Deed of Records of Bell County, Texas, November 17, 1905, Volume 363, Page 1. Bell County Courthouse, Belton, Texas.
6. Minutes, dated June 17, 1882.
7. Killeen Daily Herald, Sunday, May 1, 1983, obtained from Killeen Public Library, Killeen, Texas.
8. Newspaper article, April 29, 1979, Killeen Daily Herald, Killeen, Texas, obtained from the Killeen Library.
9. Notarized Document from Mildred Cosper, Treas., November 7, 1977.
[List of interments deleted -- page continues....]
EMILY LeSEUR HAYNES SHARP
In 1846, William Glenn Haynes, son of Parmenas Haynes, Jr., and his wife, Emily LeSeur Haynes (who was born in Georgia and who he had married in 1842 in Russell County, Alabama when she was 18 and he was 24), moved to Harrison County, Texas to be near Parmenas Haynes, Sr., who had moved there earlier. Emily LeSeur was from a wealthy and prominent family with French ancestry and was related to Napoleon Bonaparte.
For three generations the Haynes' were large land owners, with slaves. William Glenn and Emily Haynes were no exception. By 1849, William Glenn Haynes owned over 1,000 acres in Harrison and Panola Counties, Texas. He had his own cottonmill and gin near his home in Elysian Fields. Family history passed down from generation to generation states that William Glenn went on a river boat trip to Alabama in 1849 to collect money owned him and was murdered on the return trip for his money. Emily who had a "6th sense" about things had begged him not to go because she felt something was going to happen to him. So, at the age of 25, Emily LeSleur Haynes was a wealthy young widow with 3 children, William Parmenas "Pompy" Haynes, Samuel Grant Haynes and Mary Jane Haynes. Emily's second son, Samuel Grant Haynes, married Mary Casey. They lived on a portion of the farm nearer the Cemetery. Samuel Grant Haynes and his wife later sold their portion of the farm and moved their family to DeLeon, Texas, where they are both buried.
They had eight children:
Mildred "Jennie" Haynes
Born: May 14, 1867
Emily "Nettie" Haynes
Born: February 1870, who died at age 20 after being stood up at the church for her wedding. (It is said that she died of a broken heart.)
William Allen Haynes Born: Mary 14, 1872, who was known as Allen and was a well-known area rancher.
James Hill Haynes
Born: December 20, 1873.
Henry M. Haynes, a doctor from the Gatesville area.
Samuel Robert "Bob" Haynes
Born: November 5, 1883, who gave us much of this information and lived in Stephenville, Texas, until his death June 3, 1972.
Ada Haynes
Born: August 16, 1887.
Emily's daughter by William Glenn Haynes, Mary Jane "Sis", married John W. Cox in 1864.
They had 7 sons:
William Cox, Solomon Cox, Hugh Cox, Samuel Cox, John W. Cox, Jr., Alonzo Cox, and Bob Cox.
They also had one daughter, Jennie, who married Bill Springer. Mary Jane and her husband John W. Cox, and several of their children, in- cluding Jennie Springer, are buried in Sharp Cemetery.
On February 8, 1852, Emily married Augustus V. Sharp and in 1859 they moved to Bell County and settled the land along the Lampasas River.
Emily and Augustus Sharp had 4 children; Alonzo (Bud), who never married and died young; Sarah, who died at age 6, Emily who married Emerson Kelley and was listed as living in Youngsport, Texas, in the 1880 census, with her husband and 2 children, Martha, age 5, and Maud, age 1. Emily's youngest daughter, Sula (Sulie) Sharp married Mark Whitmire. They had a daughter, Bertha, and a son, Worley Whitmire.
Emily's oldest son, William Parmenas Haynes, went away to fight in the Civil War when he was 16 year of age. He was reported killed in action, but Emily's "6th sense", told her different. She kept setting his place at the table and believing that he would return. One day as she was at the river getting a bucket of water, she heard him call to her and she looked up and he was coming across the field to her.
William Parmenas Haynes married Adaline Cole and they had 1 child, Mildred Adaline, who died at age 6. She died in December 1876, only 4 months after her mother's death in August 1876. They are both buried in the rock enclosure at Sharp Cemetery, along with August V. Sharp, Alonzo Sharp, Sarah Sharp, Emily Sharp, and one other grave whose marker is too dim to read.
William Parmenas Haynes' second wife was Sarah Elizabeth Gould, daughter of Anna Elizabeth Lentz Gould and her husband, Uriah Gould. William and "Sallie", as she was called, had 7 children. They are:
William Uriah Haynes
Born: December 18, 1877, who moved to Oklahoma and died there.
Ophelia Mae Haynes
Born: October 18, 1879, who married a Wilmeth, and lived and died in New Mexico.
Samuel LeSeur Haynes
Born: December 4, 1880, who lived and died in San Angelo, Texas.
Thomas Jefferson Haynes
Born: February 23, 1882, who married Frances Douglas McClendon, daughter of Matilda Gower McClendon and John William McClendon.
Anna Belle Haynes
Born: November 24, 1885, who married George Gore.
Sadie Janette Haynes
Born: February 16, 1890, who married Alfred Shafer.
Josephine Haynes
Born: December 4, 1892, who married a Blow.
The home which William Parmenas Haynes built for his family is owned by the Churchill Duncan family and even though it has deteriorated, its ruins still stands at the intersection of SH 195 and the Sharp Cemetery Road. William Parmenas Haynes and his 2d wife, Sarah Elizabeth, are buried in the Sharp Cemetery, along with their son, Tom or "Nubbin", as he was called as a boy, Anna Belle Gore, and Josephine Blow, their daughters, along with numerous other grand-children and great-grandchildren of Emily LeSeur Haynes Sharp.
HAYNES & SHARP FAMILY INFORMATION WAS FURNISHED BY: Zoanna Williams Curry, Great-great Granddaughter of Emily LeSeur Haynes Sharp and her first husband, William Glenn Haynes. Zoanna Williams Curry is the daughter of Nora Bell Haynes and Joseph "Joe" Samuel Williams.