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BY JORDAN MENDEZ
HERALD DEMOCRAT
"John Pete Steel 185-" read the tombstone, its date partially
chipped off. Clearly it was the earliest grave in the cemetery, that
of a man who had been dead for more than a century. Other graves
were dated from 1862 to 1952.
Finding the wooded lot on Preston Peninsula required
meandering for nearly half an hour. It took even longer to make it
around dense brush and to avoid abundant beds of fire ants. The
brush around the lot was at least five feet tall, hiding the ant beds from
view. Ant bites were inevitable.
Curt Meyers, a Boy Scout, and his companion, Max Moore,
cleaned up the site for a second Saturday. Meters said the cemetery
was hard to find. He spoke about the "Glenn Ellen Rd."
sign, with a film of red clay masking the white letters, being hard to
read.
The cemetery is next to an immaculate white house overlooking
the lake. The house overshadowed anything noteworthy about the
cemetery --- except for a discovery which has led to the lot's being
salvaged.
Originally, the Millennium Committee, chaired by Judge R. C.
Vaughan and Dr. Ann Thomas, had put locating old cemeteries in Texoma on
its agenda. Leigh Stafford of Preston worked on the committee, and
devised an intricate plan to find old cemeteries in Preston. |
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She said, "I just went around asking neighbors if they knew of any
sites".
Dr. Leonard J. Flohr informed her of a site in Preston. He also told
her that George McElraft was related to some of the people buried in the
site.
Stafford called Thomas to see if a cemetery were plotted on
the peninsula. Sure enough, it was on the map. It had been
surveyed by Leland Rogers and Charlotte Holder in 1983.
It was recorded as the Massey Steel Cemetery. In this cemetery were
buried three men from two different wars.
This sparked the interest of Dickie Gerig, a member of the
Millennium Committee and United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Gerig said, "This is an exciting find for the Daughters
and Sons of the Confederacy and will play an important part in the
Re-enactment." The cemetery contains Pvt. John Massey, who fought in
the war of 1812 under the 4th Regiment East Tennessee Militia. He
died in 1862. The other two graves contain soldiers from the Civil
War, Cpl. Henry W. Massey of Company C of the 11th Texas Calvary died at
the Battle of Atlanta.
His body was buried in Millner, Ga. In 1952, his body
was returned to the Texas cemetery. No one knows the identity of the other
soldier.
Unmarked graves also exist inside the perimeter of the
lot. Gerig said he suspects these are buried slaves. |
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McElraft is one of the last members of the Steel family living in the
area. "I have been doing some genealogical research, but I
can't find the relationship between the Massey and Steel family," he
said.
McElraft is related to the Steel side of the family through
his grandmother, Madge Steel Terry. He also said, "That big
white house was built over the family's abandoned log cabins." Once
the boys located the cemetery, they spent the morning cutting away at the
brush and picking up litter in the area.
Meyers, 16, was volunteering to clean up the site in order to
receive his Eagle Scout. "There were about five of the Sons (of
the Confederacy) and 20 Scouts last weekend," Meyers said.
Meyers described the project. He said Gerig contacted
his troop leader, Daryl Odum, looking for young men interested in doing
something unique for their Eagle Scout project. Meyers accepted the
challenge in spite of Gerig's saying, "There will be plenty of
Saturdays this summer."
When Stafford heard about Meyer's project, she said, "it
is a lovely thing those boys are doing."
In the process, Meyers said he is learning the value of
service, and will carry a piece of history with him. |