Coontown - Caney Creek Cemetery  
Coontown -Caney Creek 
Cemetery & the Association
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peace Reigns

 The Association at Work 
    Coontown Cemetery, Fannin County
    Also known as Caney Creek Cemetery or Caney Cemetery
    Written by Carolyn Gibson Sparks

              Coontown Cemetery, dating back at least until 1856 (the oldest surviving headstone), is almost all that remains of a community, Coontown, near Savoy, between Bonham and Sherman. Churches, a school, and a blacksmith shop are now only distant memories. Thomas and Owen Coonrod were two brothers from Illinois, who settled two miles southeast of Savoy in 1847.  A small community, named after the family sprang up. 
              Several people buried at Coontown/Caney Cemetery were active in one of the community’s churches. Caney Church was organized Saturday, the third Sunday in March 1848 by Elders James Savage and Gabriel Fitzhugh, with the following members: Joseph Fowler, Charley Lee Huggins, Mary Coonrod, Huldah Lee, Elizabeth Coonrod, Lucy Fowler and Lydia Hutchins.  A permanent meeting place for the church was arranged with the purchase of land from Owen and Mary Coonrod March 13, 1854. 
    Prominent figures buried at Coontown Cemetery might include: six known veterans of the Civil War, a veteran of the Cherokee Indian Wars, a Native American,  a Mason, at least three preachers, a preacher’s wife, and a writer. The Civil War Veterans include: G.H. Dorsey , Robert Deatherage,  Finis E. Horne,  Lewis Hutchins,  Smith Isaac Massegee, and Jesse Wrenn.  Randolph Gibson served in the Tennessee militia during the Cherokee Wars.  (Identified in 2005 - W.H. Blythe, was a Union Soldier)
            Preachers were extremely important to the early settlers. James Wilson Ray was a dedicated Primitive Baptist preacher, who officiated the wedding ceremony for the founder of Savoy, Col. William Savoy.    Reverend William Horne’s wife is buried at Coontown Cemetery and Reverend James Hunt also served the community as a Baptist preacher. 
              John English Deatherage was not only a preacher, but a fairly prolific writer as well. His diary records his trip from Tennessee to Texas in 1851,  but one of the most moving of his known writings is a poem Deatherage wrote and set to music following the death of his son, Robert Allen, from Civil War battlefield wounds. An excerpt from the poem and the pen of Reverend J.E. Deatherage, seems a fitting epitaph to the souls buried at Coontown/Caney Cemetery:

    Have mercy O my father God
    And take me to thy blest abode
    Take me from this poor world below
    Nor leave me here alone in war….

    Fast to the fold of suffering saints
    And tell them all your sad complaints
    Yet tell them what your friend has done
    And saved your soul when hope was gone. 

    Coontown Cemetery Association, a nonprofit organization, was formed in June 2000 for the purpose of preserving, restoring and protecting Coontown Cemetery. Since its formation, a mountain of garbage piled next to headstones has been removed; terracing of the low-lying cemetery site has been arranged; and a pipe and wire fence with gated entrance erected.  One headstone at the cemetery bears the inscription, "Gone but not forgotten." 
    The criteria for designation as a historic Texas cemetery are that the cemetery be at least 50 years old and have historic associations. Coontown/Caney Cemetery is 150 years old and is all that remains of a community known as Coontown. In addition, people buried in the cemetery contributed greatly to early Texas settlement and military support. Rev. Deatherage may have been one of the first Fannin County, Texas historians. Deatherage is said to have written Conditions and Life in Fannin and Grayson Counties 1852 to 1870. 
    (See Bibliogrpahy and research notes included)


     
 Please see historical research page.
    Records are being assembled to reconstruct the census of the cemetery if you have family buried there please contact the Fannin County CC.
    Please click on links to see the photos of headstones
© 2006
Email Any Additions or suggestions

  Fannin Home page