Merit Cemetery

The 1870 U.S. Census lists most area settlers as farmers from the Upland South. One such family was that of Dr. Alexander Murchison, who arrived from Polk County, Georgia. Through his efforts the Methodist Church organized in Apr. 1871. In the 1870s, Judge William W. Merritt's visit and speech so impressed residents that they found their town namesake (later shortened to Merit). A post office opened in 1884 and the railroad arrived in 1886, stimulating cotton production and helping stores, fraternal lodges and a newspaper to begin operations. A bank opened in 1904; in Nov. 1912, robbers drove away with $4,500 by blasting open the bank vault with nitroglycerin. A 1921 fire, the Great Depression, and World War II led to a population drop which recent suburban growth has reversed.

In Oct. 1907, Dr. Murchison and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, deeded 15 acres atop a rise to the Odd Fellows Lodge for a community cemetery. An open-air wooden tabernacle was built soon after. Cemetery care transferred in 1947 to the Farmersville Odd Fellows Lodge, and in 1952 to the Merit Cemetery Association, who holds an annual meeting on Memorial Day. Merit Cemetery is one of the few in Hunt County with swept graves. Headstones are primarily granite, marble and limestone, and historic plantings include roses, irises, crape myrtles and evergreens. The oldest grave (1882) is the infant son of J.D. and L.E. Lawrence. The influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 caused many deaths. Military veterans date from the Civil War to the Vietnam War, and there are numerous Woodmen of the World, Odd Fellows and Masonic tombstones, used by longtime families and newcomers. The cemetery is the link between modern Merit and past generations who farmed the surrounding rolling Blackland Prairie.

Historic Texas Cemetery - 2009