I Found Antrim Cemetery Across the Road!

Antrim Cemetery Today:

Antrim Cemetery is an active cemetery nestled in the northwest corner of Houston County, Texas close to the Anderson County line and contains recent burials of families who presently live in the area or who lived in this area in the past.

Visitors may come to the open cemetery to pay their respects, clean the area around headstones, take pictures, and write comments in the Visitors' Notebook. My interest is about the two ancestral lines in my mother's family: the Willis and Gray surnames. Many other surnames in the Antrim Cemetery are also in my ancestry listed alphabetically: Brinson, Cook, Durnell, Edens, Helm, Hudnell, Little, McElroy, Simpson, Streetman, Weisinger, Weissinger, and Williams.   

Some say that Antrim Cemetery was named for an early settler in the Antrim Community in the Houston and Anderson Counties area: W. F. Gray, my Great-great-great Grandfather, born 1802 and said to have migrated from Antrim County in Ireland.

Another story says that an earlier name for the cemetery was McElroy Cemetery. Still another name is Anthom Cemetery.

Nearby Towns:

Elkhart, Texas (5.8 miles NNE), Salmon, Texas (6.8 miles ENE), and Grapeland, Texas (8.5 miles ESE).

Find A Grave:

www.findagrave.com: Antrim Cemetery, Houston County, Texas: 235 Records,

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=2129

Transfer requests at www.findagrave.com should be requested for direct relatives within four generations. This includes siblings, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

The following individual contributors, organization, and more have added records to www.findagrave.com web site for Antrim Cemetery:

Joel Farringer, www.findagrave.com member #46600437, member for 7 years, 11 months, 21 days,

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46600437.

Martha Yates Vandver, www.findagrave.com member #46783522, member for 6 years, 8 months, 28 days,
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&CRid=2129&MRid=46783522

Bernard-Trigg, www.findagrave.com member #46860860, member for 5 years, 3 months, 21 days, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46860860.

Linda Robbins, www.findagrave.com member #47094726, member for 3 years, 9 months, 25 days,

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=47094726

Tom Streetman, www.findagrave.com member #47063251, member for 3 years, 26 days,

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=47063251.

Houston County Historical Commission, Crockett, TX, www.findagrave.com member #:47230384, member for 1 year, 10 months, 26 days, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=47230384.

If there are more www.findagrave.com contributors who are descendants of any of the ancestors at Antrim Cemetery, Houston County, Texas, please let me know and I will add your name here.

Records List and Map of Row and Plot Numbers by Ivey Maurice Brinson after 2004:

Antrim Cemetery, Houston County, Texas: 184 Records

The map is displayed below. If someone would like the eight-page list of names, birth, death, and sometimes marriage dates, additional social organization affiliated symbols, and more inscriptions, please leave a comment, a Facebook private message, or email me.

Antrim Cemetery, Houston County, Texas: 172 Records

Letty Harrington compiled this  Internet web site list to place online records complete with name, birth date, death date, inscription, and her comments in five columns. Each record is linked to a digital photograph of each headstone. Last update: July 7, 2002.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gonetotexas/East-TX-cemeteries/antrim/antrim.htm. 

Houston County (Texas) Cemeteries, Second Edition: 158 Antrim Cemetery Records.

Compiled by Houston County Historical Commission, Third Floor, Court House, Crockett, Texas. Copyright 1978. Hunter Publishing Company, Printers. 2475 South Stratford Road, Winston-Salem, NC. 27103. The second edition contains 192 burial grounds, family plots, and community cemeteries. The preface lists many Houston and Anderson County residents who volunteered for the field work for this edition including many descendants of John Pinckney and Lucy Jane Lamb Willis. The Table of Contents is an Alphabetical Indexed List of Houston County Cemeteries from pages 3-431. At the end of the book is a Surname List for Houston County Cemeteries from pages 1-22.

Antrim Cemetery is listed from pages 25-27and was compiled or checked by Mrs. I.J. Nichols in October, 1976. Antrim Cemetery contains 158 records.

The following is a transcription about Antrim Cemetery from this book:

“Located about 7 miles west of Grapeland on Farm to Market Road 1272. Take right hand dirt road and go about 4 miles. It is just across Mackleroy Spring Brand on a hill to the right. Well-kept and enclosed by a cyclone fence.”

“It derived its name from W. F. Gray [my 3^rd great-grandfather] who came from Antrim, England [Ireland or Virginia] in the 1800s and who is the great grandfather of Jim [James Malachi Gray, 1882-1964, my great uncle] and Ed Gray [John Ed Gray, 1886-1959, my great uncle] and grandfather of Richard Gray [1853-1917, my great-grandfather]. Some say the first grave was that of a male slave and unmarked. However, according to markers, the earliest is T. L. Kent, February 12, 1847-February 2, 1873.”

“Land for the cemetery was deeded by Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Durnell [uncle of wife of 1st cousin 1x removed] in 1910. Almost every grave has interesting epitaphs of poetry or scripture which have to be omitted for the sake of brevity. Other remarks are written at the end of page 27: “Wynn lots are enclosed by cyclone fince and “kept very special”.

Additional history, according to Ethel Gray Wilson [1912-2004, daughter of Richard Malachi and Olivia Elizabeth Gray mentioned in an earlier paragraph, and my first cousin, once removed], Elkhart, Texas follows:

"In the 1860s, John McElroy bought the 488 acres in the Collison League, where the Antrim Cemetery is located. John McElroy gave five acres for a church, school, and cemetery. The first person to get a resting place in the new cemetery was John McElroy’s negro slave. The next ones buried were Billiy Williams and wife. I have no history on who passed away first. John McElroy and wife, Jane, are resting here and his sister and a brother, nephews and nieces.”

The first edition published in 1977 listed 142 burial grounds, family plots, and community cemeteries.

The Houston County Historical Commission, 401 E. Goliad Ave., Suite 203, Crockett, TX 75835, 936-544-3255 ext. 238, hchc@co.houston.tx.us has  publications for sale.

New Houston County Cemeteries: A computer database printout of cemeteries in Houston County, Texas. This printout is alphabetical by surname with about 1,200 pages and is up-to-date as of the week it is printed for $70.00, a USB, or a CD for $35.00 with available updates.

I hope all the readers enjoy looking at the links for the many records at Antrim Cemetery, Houston County, Texas. I am indebted to second cousin Ivey Maurice Brinson and second cousin once removed Tom Streetman for their friendship and genealogy expertise.