Historic Cemetery

French Memorial Cemetery

a.k.a. Old French; graves outside of fence

Trinity, Texas
Location: SH 19 south from Trinity to FM 3453. East 1.5 miles to Pine Crest Road and cemetery sign. North on Pine Crest .4 miles to gate and gravel road on west side. .3 miles west on private road to cemetery.The Wilkey Tomb or stone, was originally located at this site, but was removed by a group of boys in the past and taken to another location. It was believed for a while that the Wilkey tomb was a different site, but the stone was eventually moved back to its original location in the French Memorial Cemetery.Charlie Elliott (property owner) has fenced and maintains the site, but he is older and cannot visit the site frequently.He has placed concrete and plastic pipe replacement markers at the site. Mr. Elliot said that he found graves marked with fieldstones about 100' NE of site by accident while hunting, but has not been able to locate them again. Mr. Elliott believes that unmarked graves are all through the woods. The deed records to the site show that the cemetery is 4.5 acres in size. Currenlty, about 1 acre is actually fenced.

Source: RIP Fields Table

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