Belknap cemetery gets state historic designation

The Texas Historical Commission recently designated Belknap Cemetery as a Historic Texas Cemetery due to efforts by Young County Judge John Bullock to secure the designation, the Texas Historical Commission said in an Oct. 1 press release. Judge Bullock made the application, did the research, and wrote the narrative that led to the designation. “I am quoting my grandmother, Mrs. J.W. (Mattie Wray) Bullock, and Mrs. J.B. (Mammie) Mars as recorded in the Texas Cemetery Records,” he said in the application. “Young County from the first Belknap Cemetery Survey in 1858 identif[ied] 68 graves: Belknap Cemetery was grown up in weeds and it was impossible to find all the graves.” A dedication ceremony will be held at a date to be announced to commemorate the historic designation will be held at a later date. The historic designation is reserved for cemeteries that are at least 50 years old and documented through the Historical Texas Cemetery designation process to record their historic association and significance, the agency said. Belknap Cemetery was established before the 1856 creation of Young County by an act of the Texas Legislature, it said.

Cemeteries hold valuable historic information and are often the last reminders of early settlements’ historical events, religious beliefs, lifestyles, and genealogy, the state historical commission said. While the Historic Texas “Cemetery designation encourages cemetery preservation, it cannot guarantee that a historic cemetery will avoid destruction,” it said. “Threats to historic cemeteries include urban expansion and development, vandalism, grazing animals, and long-term deterioration from weather and uncontrolled vegetation. The THC developed the designation to address this destruction and the illegal removal of cemetery fixtures, it said.