Coontown Cemetery

Also known as Caney Creek Cemetery or Caney Cemetery

Written by Carolyn Gibson Sparks

Photo of the New fence and gate at Coontown Cemetery Coontown Cemetery, dating back at least until 1856 (the oldest surviving headstone), is almost all that remains of a community, Coontown, near Savoy, between Bonham and Sherman. Churches, a school, and a blacksmith shop are now only distant memories. Thomas and Owen Coonrod were two brothers from Illinois, who settled two miles southeast of Savoy in 1847. A small community, named after the family sprang up.

Several people buried at Coontown/Caney Cemetery were active in one of the community’s churches. Caney Church was organized Saturday, the third Sunday in March 1848 by Elders James Savage and Gabriel Fitzhugh, with the following members: Joseph Fowler, Charley Lee Huggins, Mary Coonrod, Huldah Lee, Elizabeth Coonrod, Lucy Fowler and Lydia Hutchins. A permanent meeting place for the church was arranged with the purchase of land from Owen and Mary Coonrod March 13, 1854.

One headstone at the cemetery bears the inscription, "Gone but not forgotten." In an effort to keep that promise, The Coontown Cemetery Association, a nonprofit organization, was formed in June 2000 for the purpose of preserving, restoring and protecting Coontown Cemetery. Since its formation, a mountain of garbage piled next to headstones has been removed; terracing of the low-lying cemetery site has been arranged; and a pipe and wire fence with gated entrance erected to prevent the cows from taking back over. Be sure to check out the photos of the cemetery renovations efforts.

Photo of Coontown Cemetery taken before the cleanup. The criteria for designation as a historic Texas cemetery are that the cemetery be at least 50 years old and have historic associations. Coontown/Caney Cemetery is 150 years old and is all that remains of a community known as Coontown. In addition, people buried in the cemetery contributed greatly to early Texas settlement and military support. Prominent figures buried at Coontown Cemetery might include: six known veterans of the Civil War, a veteran of the Cherokee Indian Wars, a Native American, a Mason, at least three preachers, a preacher’s wife, and a writer. The Civil War Veterans include: G.H. Dorsey , Robert Deatherage, Finis E. Horne, Lewis Hutchins, Smith Isaac Massegee, and Jesse Wrenn. Randolph Gibson served in the Tennessee militia during the Cherokee Wars. (Identified in 2005 - W.H. Blythe, was a Union Soldier)

Preachers were extremely important to the early settlers. James Wilson Ray was a dedicated Primitive Baptist preacher, who officiated the wedding ceremony for the founder of Savoy, Col. William Savoy. Reverend William Horne’s wife is buried at Coontown Cemetery and Reverend James Hunt also served the community as a Baptist preacher.

John English Deatherage was not only a preacher, but a fairly prolific writer as well. Rev. Deatherage may have been one of the first Fannin County, Texas historians. He is said to have written Conditions and Life in Fannin and Grayson Counties 1852 to 1870. His diary records his trip from Tennessee to Texas in 1851, but one of the most moving of his known writings is a poem Deatherage wrote and set to music following the death of his son, Robert Allen. An excerpt from the poem and the pen of Reverend J.E. Deatherage, seems a fitting epitaph to the souls buried at Coontown/Caney Cemetery:

Photo of Coontown Cemetery taken after the cleanup.

Have mercy O my father God
And take me to thy blest abode
Take me from this poor world below
Nor leave me here alone in war….

Fast to the fold of suffering saints
And tell them all your sad complaints
Yet tell them what your friend has done
And saved your soul when hope was gone.