Memorial Gardens Cemetery

photo by Darrell Colson

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Wellington Cemetery was the name given to the original portion of Memorial Gardens. It was the first cemetery in the community, and was located on a portion of the NE 1/2 of Section 99, Block 14. This area, lying within the original town site, was set aside from the beginning as a burial ground. In 1912 during a typhoid epidemic, the city and county officials decided that the cemetery was polluting the water supply, which came from the private wells in the community. The Cemetery Association, therefore, closed it and bought Fairview Cemetery. People were requested to move their dead to this new location, and some complied. However, there were others who did not wish to do so, and some few continued burying their dead in the cemetery. Later, when city water wells were dug east of town, Wellington Cemetery was reopened. On April 17, 1942, the county and city deeded a part of the old fairgrounds to the Wellington Cemetery Association, and lots were again sold. The first person to be buried in the old area was Herbert Bush, son of Harve and Sallie Bush, who was killed by a horse in 1890. Some of the earliest graves and their markers have completely disappeared, leaving no records for posterity. A portion of Memorial Gardens is set aside for those who wish to purchase perpetual care when they buy lots. A Perpetual Care Fund has been established for this purpose by the Wellington Cemetery Association. All the lots along Corsicana Street in Sections 1 and 2 are reserved for American Legion members and their wives. The cemetery is beautiful. Mrs. Jennie Holcomb, DAR Bicentennial Project Historian (1976) Sixteen sections have been designated for the cemetery (1995) It begins at the Northwest corner by the power station and roughly follows the old railroad; the right-of-way is now surveyed into the cemetery. Sixteen sections are included in the map of the cemetery with the census beginning in the Northwest corner and continuing in North to South rows. The cemetery is bounded by First and Third streets with Second street entering the cemetery and between Belton and Dallas Streets with Corsicana bisecting the cemetery from First to Third Street. A Memorial Circle is on the Northeast section surrounded by sections 9, 10, 13, and 14. Curbing indicates future passageways. The Memorial Circle has a monument engraved on two sides with the 23rd Psalm.