THE FIELDS STORE CEMETERY

The Fields Store Cemetery is in the John Reece Survey near the junction of F. M. 1488 and the Fields Store Road. Although it is one of the oldest and also one of the largest cemeteries in Waller County, its location is so secluded, sitting as it does back in an area of large oak, hickory and cedar trees, one unfamiliar with the community would never realize he was passing so near this historic landmark.

It appears to have come into being at the beginning of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The first of the land for it was given by D. H. Fields whose grave marker in it bears the earliest date in the cemetery - 1872. Mr. Fields must have given two acres for the next gift of one acre by J. W. Day for "place for Public Worship, a School and a Permanent Burying Ground", raised the number of acres to three acres according to a deed of one acre to the cemetery by Charlie and Clara Harris in 1905. At the time this 1905 deed was made there was on the three acres a church building which also housed the school and a Masonic Hall and the cemetery. (The Masons had bought that same year from the church and cemetery enough space for a lodge hall for Pleasant Hill Lodge No. 380.) In 1913, an additional acre was bought for the cemetery from Mr. and Mrs. Harris, and a few years later a thirty-two foot strip running the length of the cemetery was bought from Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Schneider. Some years later, Marion Allen bought a piece of land with large trees on it adjoining the cemetery. This plot was the size of two regular cemetery lots. He gave it to the cemetery saying that he wished it to be part of the cemetery, but stipulated that a part of it would be a burial plot for his father and mother and any other members of the family who might be buried there. In 1966, the Cemetery Association bought from D. C. and Lois Hardcastle an additional area bordering on the cemetery and fenced it into the cemetery for future cemetery needs.

For most of the time since its establishment, this cemetery has been a well-kept one. At first, there would be an annual cemetery working day attended by the families who had burial plots in the cemetery. They would come early with their hoes, rakes, shovels and other necessary tools and all morning men and women would work. At noon, they would spread their dinner on the table cloths in the shade of the large trees in front of the cemetery, eat, visit and rest a while then return to work. By four o'clock, the cemetery would be cleaned and raked, and the graves would be rounded up with the iron ore found so abundantly in the area, and the satisfaction of a day's work well done. Later, when they began needing more money for cemetery expenses than they felt able to give-expense for grave digging tools and for a fence-they began having Fourth of July picnics to make money from the ice cream stand. Through the years, these have become a community reunion. They continue to this day with a rodeo added to the day's attraction-this also usually brings in additional expense money.

 

In the earliest days ofthe cemetery operation, the business was handled in a casual way-just by word of mouth and general agreement; but in time some things might be forgotten. Then the women of the community decided that an organization and records were needed; so the first Fields Store Cemetery Association was formed of and by the women in the community. Then they drew in the men, and today the business of the Association is attended to in a very business-like way. The Association has an elected board, a non-profit organization charter, a secretary -treasurer and a full time sexton. The proceeds of the picnics and rodeos are no longer adequate, so a per grave space annual fee is charged each family.

Through the years since a sexton has been employed the following have served:

Mrs. Fannie Breneman, Bradford Turner, W. S. Hafer, R. K. Wilson, Arlis Sheffield, Guy Hill Sheffield, Worth Day and Roy Fogle, who is the present one. Minutes of the meeting have been kept and these are complete back to 1934.

There are in this cemetery about twenty-one hundred grave spaces, the great majority of them graves, the others available for future needs Among those buried here, there are often members of five generations offamllies. There are also veterans of five wars buried here, namely; The Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and II and the Korean War.

One of the greatest disasters to strike the cemetery was the Hurricane of 1915.

During this furious storm, big trees were up rooted and this in turn turned over and frequently broke off the tombstones. In the clearing up of the chaos that resulted, some of the grave sites were lost, especially those of unmarked graves. - Jimmie Rene Ogg

This was written in 1977 by Jimmie Rene Ogg.