Pecan Grove Memorial Park

Three burial grounds sit side by side here, and the color line ran between them. Joy Gough found Pecan Grove, a Potters' Field just south of it, and the Ross Colored Cemetery to the southeast, each with its own deed. The Ross deed, recorded under Colored People Cemetery, covers three acres and was made by some of the same men who made the Pecan Grove deed. She writes that white people lie at Ross too, those judged unfit for Pecan Grove, sometimes only newcomers no one knew. Trees hide Ross from the other two.

What the plaque says

Pecan Grove Memorial Park This park is situated on property granted by the Republic of Texas to Samuel McFarland in 1845, only four years after the first permanent settlement in this area was begun by a pioneer from Tennessee, Dr. William E. Throckmorton (1795-1843), and his family. By the 1850s, when the first known burials occurred, R.A. Davis owned the land. The name of the spot was derived from a handsome stand of trees. Ownership by the public began in 1870 with the purchase of a 21.3-acre tract by Isaac F. Graves, I.D. Newsome, G.A. Foote, E.R. Stiff, and Thomas J. Brown. The original charter was issued in 1889 to Pecan Grove Cemetery Association, Inc., a private corporation. Additional land was purchased in 1892 and 1960. The name "Pecan Grove Memorial Park", granted in a new charter in 1964, commemorates the courageous and compassionate pioneer men and women of this vicinity. One of these, Dr. James Webb Throckmorton (1825-1894), was a Texas Legislator in the 1850s; became a confederate brigadier general during the Civil War; was Governor of Texas in 1866-67; and was in the United States Congress intermittently from 1875 to 1888. Pecan Grove Decoration Day is held every spring. (1976) Incise on the back: Marker Sponsors: Geo C. Webb, Pres., W.P. Carter, V.P. & Supt., E.T. Simpson, Sec. & Treas., R.D. Horn, Dir., Ben Whisenant, Dir., Ova James West, Historian, (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 1.5 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 20 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Governor James Webb Throckmorton — steps away
• Fanny Finch Elementary School — 0.5 mi
• Bradley Cemetery — 0.5 mi
• The Birthplace of Rebekah Baines Johnson — 1.0 mi