Historic Cemetery

Prater Cemetery

Temple, Texas
Location: Drive south from Temple on FM 1741. Just past Waters Dairy Rd, highway will turn west. Keep going straight down private road, over railroad tracks and turn left at fork in the road. Drive down the hill or leave car at fork and cross low water crossing and up the bank. Where the road isw level, turn left into first pasture and some three hundred feet is the cemetery at the edge of the free growth.
Graves: 3 (1894-1904)
Size: 12 ft x 15 ft

To address the problem of cemetery destruction and to record as many cemeteries as possible, the Texas Historical Commission offers the Historic Texas Cemetery designation.

The Historic Texas Cemetery designation was developed in 1998 to help protect historic cemeteries by recording cemetery boundaries in county deed records to alert present and future owners of land adjacent to the cemetery of its existence. Every county in Texas has at least one cemetery designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery through this program. The HTC designation is the first step toward preservation of a historic cemetery.

A cemetery is eligible for designation if it is at least 50 years old and is deemed worthy of recognition for its historical associations. The very nature of a cemetery being a landmark of a family’s or community’s presence is considered to validate the criteria of historical associations. Any individual, organization, or agency may submit a request for designation.

gravesites