Well, how do you do, interred family McBryde,
Do you mind if I wander here by your graveside
And pause for a bit 'neath this chill winter sun
Glad to have met you on our waymark run.
I see by your gravestones you've been here a while
Do you mind the stray visitor in quest of a smile?
Sure, we come in a game, but our motives aren't mean
And we prize the memories of places we've been.
Did they sing the hymns slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
How many here grieved when they lowered you down?
Did the community 'round your loves rally?
As on your last journey you sallied?
Wives, Husbands, sweethearts... here lie remains
I pray that your memories still some living retain
Although most died o'er a hundred years gone
Does someone still remember your name and your song?
Or are you now ghosts, only recalled in a name
By those who come by and read brief refrain
Letters on a stone, worn by this Texas land
Where once full of life each one made a stand.
Did they sing the hymns slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
How many here grieved when they lowered you down?
Did the community 'round your loves rally?
As on your last journey you sallied?
Well, now it is time that we wandered on
With no answers to questions pondered upon
Thank you for your being, that we might come here by
E'en though our sole answer is the breeze winter sigh.
Did they sing the hymns slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
How many here grieved when they lowered you down?
Did the community 'round your loves rally?
As on your last journey you sallied?
What a marvellous old cemetery -- and there lies Jane, who started it all.
DETAILS:
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McBryde-Hoover Cemetery, Bell County, TX
Also Known As (AKA) Ding Dong Cemetery
HISTORY OF McBRYDE CEMETERY by POLLY PEAKS ELMORE, 11 September 1988
Mansel T. and Jane W. Goar McBryde were married 8 September 1844. They came to Texas from Georgia with their children.
Who were:
Thomas J. McBryde married Fanny Gray;
Franklin N. McBryde married Mary Hoover;
Mary E. McBryde married J. P. Hoover;
Adaline E. McBryde married John W. Hoover;
Josephine McBryde married W. E. Bruce;
Artea McBryde, died at birth (4 October 1858);
Robert H. McBryde married Paralee Story; and
Jane W. McBryde married Yancy Hoover.
On the 1st day of February 1875, Mansel T. McBryde paid the sum of One thousand American gold dollars to J. G. Hunt for 320 acreas on the Lampasas River.
They settled on this land and engaged in stock farming and land investments. Squire McBryde, as he was known to his peers, acquired this title because of his vast land holdings. This honorary title was not an English title.
Squire Mancel T. McBryde from Killeen or West Bell County was the peer to Joseph Dennis (Bell County or Temple). M. T. McBryde has only recently been written about and recorded in West Bell County History; whereas, Joseph Dennis was noted years ago for being the Chairman of the Committee who cut Bell County out of the tract of Milam County.
To show the family ties of the McBryde's and Dennis families:
Mancel T. McBryde - Joseph Dennis
Josephine McBryde Bruce - Sarah T. (Sally) Dennis Elmore
Adaline Elizabeth Bruce married James Thomas Elmore;
bring their families together with the 3d generation.
The McBryde family brought to Texas with them one male slave. They were one of only a few families in Bell County who brought with them a slave from the old Southern States. The slave that the McBrydes brought to Texas with them died and they buried him in an unmarked
grave not in the McBryde Cemetery.
Gra'Delle Duncan shared with me (Polly Elmore) that there were several unmarked graves to the South line, just outside of fence, and they were those of a slave and several horse thieves.
The McBryde Cemetery is the site that M. T. McBryde selected to bury his wife, Jane Goar McBryde, when she died on 31 August 1885. This is the first interment into the McBryde Cemetery. It was a common practice in the 1800s when a family member died to select a plot on the land they lived and owned to bury their love ones and start a family cemetery. Squire McBryde died in his home which overlooks the cemetery. Mancel T. McBryde is buried by the side of his wife. Since that date there have been 11 additional interments of family members and descendants.
The name McBRYDE CEMETERY and the designation of 1/2 HALF ACRE for the size of the cemetery is recorded in the legal deed and located in Bell County Court House.
When there is a grave and headstone, then the plot of land automatically belongs to the State of Texas. No family or family member owns the Cemetery because of the Public Law of Texas. Because of funding, the State of Texas depends on family members or interested parties to keep the Cemetery in good repair. No descendant has the right to be buried in the McBryde Cemetery without the expressed approval from Judge Duncan and his sister Gra'Dell Duncan.
I would like to express thanks and appreciation to Gra'Delle and Judge Duncan for permitting me to apply for a Texas Historical Marker for this Cemetery. Thanks to Sally Walden, Gra'Delle Duncan,
Ruth Elizabeth Caffey, Vera Hays, and Zelma Rhoades for being my Co-Sponsors for helping me pay for this Marker.
McBRYDE CEMETERY
Francis Kennedy Survey, Bell County
Texas Highway 195 (Formerly FM 440)
23 March 1989
Marked with a Texas Historical Marker, Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.
Paralee Story McBryde
wife of R. H. McBryde
B: 15 Oct 1867
D: 6 May 1951
Robert H. McBryde
B: 2 Nov 1860
D: 7 Octo 1887
M. T. McBryde (Squire)
B: 7 Jul 1821
D: 2 Nov 1896
Jane W. McBryde wife of M. T. McBryde
B: 14 Jun 1826
D: 31 Aug 1885
J. W. Hoover
B: 25 Sep 1843
D: 9 Mar 1926
Addie Hoover
B: 20 Mar 1851
D: 17 Feb 1937
J. P. Hoover, Sr.
B: 5 Feb 1840
D: 17 Dec 1911
Etta Hoover
B: 27 Jan 1849
D: Unrecorded on marker
Robert Yancy Hoover
B: 4 Jan 1881
D: 25 Nov 1937
Lilah Turnbo Hoover Claude Speer Hoover
B: 2 May 1889 B: 20 Dec 1918
D: 29 Mar 1967 D: (Living as of 1988)
Mack Beauford Hoover Norma Hoover Miller
B: 22 Feb 1917 1940 - 1978
D: 17 May 1970 (Daughter of Mack B. & Claude S. Hoover.)
Cataloged by: Polly Peaks Elmore
27 January 1985