FIRST Grave in Tyra Graveyard (Murray Cemetery) - Murray, TX
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member QuarrellaDeVil
N 33° 01.686 W 098° 52.274
14S E 512024 N 3654409
The headstone marking the final resting place of a Tyra infant in the historic Murray Cemetery indicates that this baby was the first grave in the cemetery, dating to 1884.
Waymark Code: WM145HY
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/20/2021
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member model12
Views: 1

This baby is buried with two siblings who did not live long, either. They are with their parents in the Tyra family plot, each with a small, modern, gray, granite headstone to mark their final resting places. Here, the inscription reads:

Baby Tyra
First Grave
May 6, 1884

A 1992 Texas Historical Marker at the front of the cemetery provides some background:

Pioneer residents of this area called their community Fish Creek until 1880, when a U.S. Post Office was established and named for the local postmaster, J.J. Murray. This cemetery dates to May 6, 1884, when the infant child of Russell and Rosa Bell Hart Tyra died and was buried on land set aside by grandparents Jesse V. and Martha Jane Higgins Tyra. A few months later, the infant child of neighbors John W. and Leona Walsh died and was buried here with the Tyra baby. J.V. and Martha Tyra officially donated the acre of land surrounding the graves for a public neighborhood graveyard in 1898. In later years, descendants of the pioneer Price and Dozier families donated additional land to increase the size of the graveyard to two acres.

Among the interments here are those of many early settlers of this area of Young County. A large number of deaths between 1900 and 1919 are believed to be due to the worldwide influenza epidemic of that time period. Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. Maintained by the Murray Community Cemetery Association, the graveyard remains a visible reminder of the community’s heritage.
FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group

Date of FIRST: 05/06/1884

More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

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