Youngblood Graves

Panola Co. Cemeteries of TX

Surveyed by Don Austin ca 1981

Submitted by Gloria B. Mayfield, Rusk Co Coordinator

Location: About 3.5 miles southwest of Beckville on FM 124 W, on the east side of the highway, approximately one-fourth mile south of the intersection of FM 124 W and Panola County Road 224. This cemetery is located on private property.

It is estimated that there are four or five graves in this cemetery, but none are marked. The following description of this cemetery is given by Don Austin in his privately circulated book "42 Lost Cemeteries".

"Located on a small hill among a grove of large trees immediately east of FM 124 several hundred yards south of the Youngblood (Freewill Baptist) Church and (Youngblood) Cemetery. This is said to be the resting place of Isaac R. Youngblood for whom the nearby church and cemetery were named.

In 1846, the year Panola County was formed, Youngblood was named overseer of this particular section of the Shreveport-to-Douglass Road, of which its original course is most nearly approximated by present day FM 124. He donated land in 1858 for a public school/church and cemetery, but was buried in a family plot next to his house at his death ‘on or about the 27^th of November, 1861…According to legend he died from a fall into his well, 90 feet deep’.

It is said that there were about four or five graves here, marked only by small mounds of dirt, but no evidence of their existence can be found today."

Information regarding the date and cause of Youngblood’s death was furnished to Austin by Leila B. LaGrone of Carthage.