THE KIRBY CHAPEL CEMETERY The Kirby Chapel Cemetery, so named because Colonel Jared E. Kirby and his wife, Helen Marrs Swearengin Kirby, gave the first land which was to be used for a non-denominational church, school and burying ground for the community, is located in BBB&C RR Survey, Abstract No. 84 in Waller County. It is some two miles north of Prairie View University where - before the University had its beginnings - Colonel Kirby and Mrs. Kirby had their home, and it is some six miles east of Hempstead about a quarter of a mile north of Farm Road 1488. On this plot of ground a non-denominational church which was originally intended to be a Presbyterian one but which was to be open for the use of any denomination, the Kirby Chapel School, the Kirby (agricultural) Alliance and the cemetery developed. Later the church became a Methodist one. As the needs of the community grew after the end of the War between the States more land was needed. On January 4, 1888, the school trustees and the Alliance bought from J. T. Swearengin and Minerva Holland two additional acres, and in 1897-another acre was bought from C. M. Jahn. In the church building church services and Sunday School were held regularly, weddings for local couples were held in it, and all too often funerals had to be held here during the hard early years. It is believed that the school was in this building also until the Kirby Chapel School and the Pond Creek School merged and the school building was built south of the Kirby Chapel site. The community school thus created was name the Union School. Gradually graves were placed in the land set aside for a burying ground; this area was fenced and a set of white steps placed in the south fence provided an entrance to the cemetery.  Gradually attendance at the church and Sunday School decreased until finally the two were discontinued, but funeral services continued to be held in the church house occasionally. The unfenced land in front of the church house and south of the cemetery was the hitching place for teams in the early days and then the parking place for cars when they came into use. Noting that the church house and the site were no longer used for church services the board of stewards of a neighboring church laid claim to the land and the building. They then sold both; the church building was moved away and the purchaser of the unfenced land fenced it so that there was no parking place for those attending family funerals and no convenient entrance way to the cemetery. Needless to say, this caused a great deal of indignation among those who had family burial plots in the cemetery, and they prepared for action. But first, they went for advice to Mr. A. T. Moore who had long been their rural delivery mail carrier and was a good friend of everyone in the community, and one whom them all trusted. Mr. Moore, after listening to them thoughtfully, asked them to delay action, promising that he would try to work out a peaceful and satisfactory solution for all concerned. He persuaded the purchaser to sell to the officials of the cemetery the land he had bought for the same price that he had paid for it. Although hurt still and somewhat bitter at the sale and purchase as made in the first place the people agreed to this kind of settlement and the officials prepared to seek donations to buy back this land that had been sacred to their families for almost a century; but they did not have to seek donations for the community families and family members who lived away made their donations almost always without solicitation and the land was bought back.  There are today about five acres of land in the cemetery area. Through the years trees have been set out so that the cemetery itself is a peaceful shady, restful place. The graves in each family plot are well spaced, but give the plot the proof of family unity, and they are mostly well kept. The different family plots are as a whole far enough apart that there is easy passageway between the neighboring ones, but the whole appearance is of a neighborhood of families reaching back into the long ago, friendly families who have worked together through the years to provide for their forebears and themselves a good final resting place. A new fence now encloses the cemetery, a fence which includes an additional area for future needs. An attractive gate bearing the title 'Kirby Chapel Cemetery' has taken the place of the white steps which were further east along the south fence. And the unfenced part of the land, kept mowed, provides a spacious convenient parking place for those who come to visit their cemetery or to attend a funeral.  Jimmie Rene Ogg

Kirby Chapel Cemetery Listing