I know a little about the Duck Creek Cemetery in Robertson County, Texas, which washed away due to floods and was lost completely.  I attended the 2001 Bald Prairie Homecoming, just to the north of Duck Creek, and it was said during the remarks that the site of the Duck Creek Cemetery was marked in the last year (2000 or 2001) using information by an elderly resident (Wilbur Adams) of the area (90+years old).  An oil company doing work in the area needed to mark it.  It was said there is no sign of a cemetery there to be seen.  I understand it is on the property of Jimmy Reagan.  Early residents of this section of Robertson County moved away from that area to higher ground where living was healthier.  They settled along the creek in dry times, not realizing how terrible the floods were and the problems with malaria.   They moved up "on the prairie", thus Bald Prairie and other communities such as East and West Boone Prairie were established.

A grandfather of mine is buried in the Duck Creek Cemetery.  He is John Berry McCown.   According to the 1850 census of Leake County, Mississippi, J. B. McCown would have been born in 1823 in South Carolina.  He married Sarah Caroline Honea McCown May 22, 1850 in Leake County, MS.  Sarah Caroline Honea McCown is buried in the Bald Prairie Cemetery and she died Nov 6, 1916.

John Berry McCown was in the Civil War in the cavalry.  He died three days after making it back home to the Duck Creek community of wounds received in the war, on July 25, 1863.  This is from the Widow's Application for Pension that Sarah Caroline McCown filed when she was 76 years old in 1911.  She stated she was born in DeKalb County, Georgia, and had been living in Robertson County, Texas for 55 years.

J. B. McCown and Sarah Caroline McCown had two sons, Robert Lewis McCown (born about 1853) and John A. McCown.  They also had four daughters; Mary, Matilda, Martha, and Sarah.  The daughter of Robert Lewis McCown, Lula Mae McCown, married my grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Alford at Bald Prairie in 1901.

The 1880 Census states that R. L. McCown's mother (Sarah Caroline Honea) was born in Georgia and his father (J. B. McCown) in South Carolina.

This information was provided by Norman L. Alford in September 2002:

BEDFORD, MRS. W. A., ? - ?

CHAMBLEE, JOHN B., about 1846 - between 1866/1874, w Nancy Ann Honea (her 2nd h was Steven C. Jayro (m 11.20.1874))

MCCOWN, JOHN BERRY, about 1823 - 7.25.1863, b South Carolina, w Sarah Caroline Honea (m 5.22.1850, Leake Co., MS), c Robert Lewis McCown (b about 1853), John A. McCown, Mary, Matilda, Martha, & Sarah, CSA

RAINES, MRS. ELIJAH, ? - ?

REAGAN, JOSEPH BLACK, 2.26.1809 - 1867

The Sears-Richards African American Cemetery is marked by the cross towards the bottom of the map below.  The cemetery in the middle is the Gee Cemetery; the one at the top is obviously the Bald Prairie Cemetery.  The Sears-Richards African American Cemetery is on the right when going from Bald Prairie towards Easterly on Hwy. 2096.  It is just inside the main entrance of the Mischer Ranch, on the left in a wooded area beyond the tank.  The area where this cemetery is located is clearly visible from both the highway and the Mischer Ranch entrance.  Thick underbrush, however, makes access extremely difficult.  Several tombstones and their inscriptions are said to be visible.  A partial list of burials is available at Sears-Richards Cemetery.

Although it's not marked on the map below, the Chamblee Crossing or Duck Creek Cemetery is located just above the cross marking the Sears-Richards Cemetery.  If you're standing at the main entrance and facing the ranch, you'll see a white oil road to your immediate right.  If you enter the ranch from this road, you'll immediately see two small rises or mounds of earth in the open pasture to the right.  Below them along the creek is a fence line that marks the path of the original road in this area.  On the first mound above this fence line (the one closest to the highway), a church once stood.  On the second mound above this fence line, there used to be a cemetery.  This is the site where the Chamblee Crossing or Duck Creek Cemetery (a Caucasian cemetery) once was.  No grave markers are visible today.

Information about this cemetery was obtained from Franklin resident Wilbur Adams, Kenny Becker - Mischer Ranch foreman, & Delton Weir.

 

Back to homepage