Old Beckville Cemetery

Panola Co  Cemeteries of TX

Surveyed by Don Austin ca 1981

Submitted by Gloria B. Mayfield, Rusk Co Coordinator

Location: About one-half mile south of the present city of Beckville, just west of the Old Beckville, which would place it southwest of the intersection of Panola County Road 250 and CR 2502.

There are estimated to be between 10-15 graves in this location; however, none of them are marked and no identities are known.

The following description of this cemetery was given by Don Austin in his privately circulated book "42 Lost Cemeteries".

"Located in the edge of the woods and showing no visible signs of its existence, very little is known about the Old Beckville Cemetery. About all that is certain is its location, which Mr. Horace Brown, a World War I veteran of Beckville, is sure of. Information suggests that the cemetery was not very large at all and that there were probably more children buried here than anyone else.

The cemetery is located a few hundred yards west of what was once the center of Beckville, now called Old Beckville. The center of the town was near the intersection of the Shreveport-to-Douglass Road and a road which led to the Macedonia Community to the south (now called Old Macedonia), and north to Carter’s Ferry and Board’s Ferry. It was at this intersection where the last hanging was held in Beckville (exact date unknown).

With the coming of the railroad to Panola County in the late 1880’s, Beckville was moved to its present location, thus giving birth to another Panola County ghost town.

The cemetery is alongside the Old Shreveport-to-Douglass Road, this particular section having been in disuse many years, and is now a little more than a track, very thin and deep in some places. There is a spring directly across the road from the cemetery and it is said that this was a popular place for travelers to stop and get water, and often camp overnight."

Some material used in Austin’s description of Old Beckville was taken from A Historical Geography of Beckville and Its Environs, the Masters of Arts thesis by Avis Kinard dated August 1943.