Smith County, Texas
| The Barron Cemetery is located east of Hwy 69 six miles south of Tyler. Some of the grave markers date back to the 1860's, bearing such names as Barron, Beddingfield, Burns, Carter, Henderson and Smyrl.
According to an article in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, Tuesday, July 29, 1969, the Barron Cemetery Foundation was organized in 1893. The old records of this cemetery have not survived with time, however, in 1969, Frank Smyrl, along with 19 descendants and friends of the original founders, took on the task of reorganizing and forming the "Barron Cemetery Foundation" which still exists today. |
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"My husband, before he died in 1995, put up the pipe fence in front of the cemetery and had the other fences repaired trying to keep vandals out. This had become a big problem. At that time the road in front of the cemetery was very narrow and grown up with trees and brush and the cemetery was fairly secluded. He had no sooner got the fence in place than vandals hit and with a 4 wheel drive vehicle pulled part of it down and also part of the partition fence between the white and black cemeteries. He repaired that, but they kept coming. We asked the Sheriff to patrol the road and they did this for a time. My husband also spent many nights at the cemetery waiting for someone to appear and he did have a couple of encounters, but this still didn't keep the vandals out. " |
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"They dug up our grandmother's grave and we don't know if they took the remains or if they had already decayed, but when we found it there was nothing left in the grave. Our grandfather's monument had been pulled off the base and broken in several pieces. We gathered up as many pieces as we could find and stacked them by his grave as we didn't feel it would be left standing until we could keep the vandals out."
"Since the new road has been laid and all the trees and brush cleaned out this has not been as big a problem, however, they still frequent the cemetery and as far as I know the city does not patrol this area, although they were told of this problem. Four of the board members met with the City Council and requested the city to take over the care and custody of this cemetery. However, they were not interested and tabled our request. We desperately need some younger people who are interested in restoring and keeping up the cemetery." - Norma Beddingfield |
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The cemetery has been cleaned and mowed just recently. Interest is so low that the interest made on the money invested is not adequate to pay for keeping the cemetery as the Foundation would like to have it kept. Monetary contributions would be greatly appreciated. You may send them to:
Barron Cemetery Foundation |
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If you agree, please email, Scott Fitzgerald
with your submission.
