Eureka Cemetery - Itasca, TX - Worldwide Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

There are at least twenty-three burials here as of this posting. Going by inscriptions alone, the last burial was that of W.B. Smith in 1917, but there have been two burials of descendants in the 21st century. There are a few other headstones with birth dates only, anticipating future burials.

This is a Historic Texas Cemetery, and a marker at the cemetery gate provides some history:

This burial ground served the early residents of the agricultural Eureka community. Eureka was settled in the 1870s mostly by residents looking to farm cotton in the region's rich, blackland soil. The community did not have a cotton gin or store, depending on nearby Lovelace and Itasca, but it did have a school and Cumberland Presbyterian church. Early Eureka settlers included the Kimmons, Eagleston, McDaniel, Faries, Clack, London, Hambright, Priddy, Hamilton and Wilson families.

Oral tradition relates that the first burial here was of a young niece of William R. Kimmons (d. 1931), who owned the property. The earliest documented burial in Eureka Cemetery, though, is of Willie D. Kimmons (d. 1887), the infant son of W.R. and Ella (Eagleston) Kimmons (d. 1934). After this interment, the Kimmons opened the graveyard to their friends and neighbors.

Eureka Cemetery features interior fencing, curbing and vertical stones in a wooded setting. Of the 20 marked graves in Eureka Cemetery, 13 are for children less than 10 years of age. From the mid-to-late 20th century, the Kimmons-Eagleston family cared for the graveyard. In 2008, the Eureka Cemetery Association formed to maintain the burial ground after interest was spurred by state and county preservationists. Today, with the old schoolhouse and church building gone, Eureka Cemetery is the only physical reminder of the community’s early history, and remains as a chronicle of its pioneers.

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The Lovelace community referenced on the marker technically still exists, with maybe a dozen people, and it still appears on maps. It's just a bit southeast of here.

There seems to have been a development regarding that "oral tradition", as Clara Belle McDaniel (Feb. 27, 1882 - Oct. 31, 1882) was a niece of W.R. Kimmons, and her death year of 1882 matches up with the sign at the cemetery gate, and precedes that of her cousin Willie, who is buried just a few feet away. While Willie's grandmother, Elizabeth, rests next to him, his parents are up the road at the Itasca Cemetery.

City, Town, or Parish / State / Country: Itasca, TX Approximate number of graves: 20+ Cemetery Status: Active Cemetery Website: [Web Link]

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