Take Hwy 105 to the east of Conroe just past Cut-n-Shoot. Turn left onto Millmac Road. Turn right onto on Willis-Waukegan Road. The New Bethlehem Church and the cemetery are on the right.

Stories to Tell
Cut and Shoot cemetery earns
state historical designation
By Howard Roden

Updated: 05.23.09

The Courier

A plaque describes the New Bethlehem Cemetery's place in history to visitors. Located in Cut and Shoot, the cemetery was recently declared a historic Texas cemetery by the Texas Historical Commission.

Flags decorate the headstones of some of the 47 war veterans buried at the New Bethlehem Cemetery in Cut and Shoot.

CUT AND SHOOT – Cemeteries are story-tellers, says Gertie Spencer, chair of the Montgomery County Historical Commission.

And the New Bethlehem Cemetery possesses plenty of tales about the generations of people who have lived in the East County community of Cut and Shoot.

A number of current and former residents have banded together to improve the cemetery’s physical condition and, in the process, honor its historical importance.

A crowd in excess of 100 was in attendance May 16 for the dedication of the New Bethlehem Cemetery as a historic Texas cemetery. The designation is part of a program conducted by the Texas Historical Commission to preserve family and community cemeteries across the state.

The unveiling of a monument that recognizes New Bethlehem’s historical status also took place during the ceremony.

The historical designation provides a “sense of pride” for those persons who have had generations buried at the cemetery, said Frankie Page, secretary-treasurer of the New Bethlehem Cemetery Association.

“It gives us a sense of belonging and that’s very important,” she said.

The cemetery is adjacent to the New Bethlehem Baptist Church at the intersection of Willis-Waukegan and Millmac roads. The cemetery has been in use since 1934, when Evalyn A. Davis Kelley was the first person interred there.

It was 2000 that the nonprofit New Bethlehem Cemetery Association was founded and now, the organization receives donations from more than 200 people – both local and out of state – who contribute annually to the cemetery’s upkeep.

“We’re working to establish a fund for our goal of perpetual care,” Jean Anderson, the association’s alternate chair, said. Anderson’s husband, Prentice, was laid to rest at the cemetery in 1994.

The funds have allowed the association to make several improvements, including a new sign over the main gate and fencing around the property.

The New Bethlehem Cemetery earned its historical designation because of the diligent work of Harley Gandy. The long-time Montgomery County educator – regarded as the county’s pre-eminent historian – spent four years researching the cemetery’s history. He and his wife, Martha, unveiled the plaque during the ceremony.

Approached by Page, Anderson and others, Gandy, a World War II veteran, had a personal interest in the marker as his parents, grandparents, two brothers and a niece are buried at the cemetery, Martha Gandy said.

Harley Gandy was the association’s first president. He remains on the association’s board, along with Anderson, Page, chairman Robert Yawn, Travis Jones and Zella Robinson.

“It means so much for the cemetery to be recognized,” Martha Gandy said. “He was approached about the state historical marker.”

“He’s the one who had the vision for the cemetery and the historical designation,” Anderson said of Harley Gandy. “He’s helping to keep the history alive.”

Some of that history can be found on the cemetery’s new monument. The land on which the cemetery is now located has been an integral part of the Cut and Shoot community for almost a century.

In 1912, Annie Amelia Peel, the widow of Thomas J. Peel, provided the property for a community school and meeting house. The land also was designated for a cemetery, but the lack of a fence to keep animals out prevented that use.

Use of the New Bethlehem cemetery grew in the 1930s because flooding in the area blocked roads to other gravesites, according to the monument.

It was fitting the monument ceremony was held on Armed Forces Day. Forty-seven of Cut and Shoot’s war veterans – dating back to the Spanish-American War in 1898 – are interred at the cemetery. The list includes five who served in World War I, 33 in War World II, three in the Korean War and four Vietnam vets.

Frankie Page’s husband, Duke, who died in October, served in the Pacific theater of World War II, as did Harley Gandy, of Conroe. Gandy, a member of the U.S. Navy, was inducted into the National Museum of the Pacific War located in Fredericksburg.

To help establish perpetual care at the New Bethlehem Cemetery, mail donations to:

New Bethlehem Cemetery Association
P. O. Box 7232
Cut and Shoot, TX 77306

For more information, call Frankie Page
in the evenings at (936) 264-1420.

Bethlehem Cemetery
Montgomery County Texas
aka New Bethlehem Cemetery

Take Hwy 105 to the east of Conroe just past Cut-n-Shoot. Turn left onto Millmac Road. Turn right onto on Willis-Waukegan Road. The New Bethlehem Church and the cemetery are on the right.

Stories to Tell
Cut and Shoot cemetery earns
state historical designation
By Howard Roden

Duke Davis Page

Bethlehem Cemetery Montgomery County Texas aka New Bethlehem Cemetery

Take Hwy 105 to the east of Conroe just past Cut-n-Shoot. Turn left onto Millmac Road. Turn right onto on Willis-Waukegan Road. The New Bethlehem Church and the cemetery are on the right.

Stories to Tell Cut and Shoot cemetery earns state historical designation By Howard Roden

Duke Davis Page

Bethlehem Cemetery
Montgomery County Texas
aka New Bethlehem Cemetery

Stories to Tell
Cut and Shoot cemetery earns
state historical designation
By Howard Roden