w$
ommunity graveyard is forgotten
y trot
‘ )e 't Him
-uero, Tei
ar s ago in)
- ^'uerooi
merit witj;
By FRANK k. vasovski
have fought a good fight
l(ive finished my course
ta ve kept the faith
Inscription on a grave marker
e d Hill Cemetery on Sandy
Point Road near Bryan.
ie Red Hill Cemetery is located
■t eight miles west of Bryan at
junction of FM 1687 (Sandy
(Road) and Pleasant Hill Road,
ent to a large gravel pit and
the road from the Bryan city
will matcl ie ^ is P osa r re ?‘ if f
■ consists of three clusters of
les, most of them in an advanced
1 L of deterioration, surrounded
CKCt [grove of oak trees. Some of the
Ie markers are torn down, others
wrgesaml [till well preserved.
Whentk L oldest identifiable grave is
s beganai [d 1889 and the most recent
he barge I. The elaborate tombstones and
lutWit I hauntingly beautiful inscrip-
ion Lod I seem to indicate that the burial
containe iwas established as a permanent
Ing place for the members of an
■rly community.
et, there is no evidence of any
?off munity near the cemetery, ex-
' ^ a few isolated houses scattered
r Shutlf avvide area '
Oct.li
George Newton of Sandy Point
Road, a black retired farmer living
near the cemetery, identified it as “a
burial site for the white folks of the
Pleasant Hill Community.” Newton
said some of their relatives were still
living “somewhere on Burt Lane,”
approximately three to four miles
northwest of the cemetery.
The county death register in the
Brazos County Clerk’s office in
Bryan contains no entries for Red
Hill Cemetery.
Files at the County Tax
Assessor-Collector office show the
burial site is located near the boun
dary line between two tracts of land,
one belonging to Pearlee L. Hall of
Bryan and the other to William A.
Faubion of Houston.
Hall acknowledged that a gravel
pit “was located on her property
next to the graveyard” but said she
did not know the identity of the per
sons buried in that graveyard.
Faubion confirmed the fact that
the gravel pit was located at the
northwest edge of his tract.
T bought that land approximately
10 years ago and I have no idea who
the people are that are buried
there,” Fauubion said, “but I intend
to look into this matter during my
“d in Hoii
>7.6 million:
11, that ski
mysteriol
vate hosi
sion. "Jol
(Joan) kejili
u Id call
ventilation
.'ity, Mu.,
n properly
>pen, Rov
/. “It has
were se
el the city
ol officials
> re vent an
us Bureau
>f inflation
of persons
ie median
cent over
;,8I5, (the
g 902,000
next visit to Bryan.”
The current County Commis
sioner of Precinct 4, W. A. Stasny,
said that Pleasant Hill Community
was dissolved in 1930. He said the
community’s cemetery is now lo
cated on private property and the
the current owner could decide to
level the place and build something
on it. “This, of course, would be the
end of the Red Hill Cemetery,”
Stasny said.
Stasny’s predecessor, Clyde J.
Porterfield of Bryan, was not availa
ble but his wife provided some of
the missing information on Pleasant
Hill Community.
"The original settlers living
around the Red Hill Cemetery were
members of the Pleasant Hill Com
munity,” Porterfield said. "We
called them Goobers’ because the
soil in the area was too poor to grow
cotton and they often planted
peanuts.”
Mrs. Fred Luther of Bryan is also
familiar with the community and its
cemetery. She said she believed the
original settlers came from Tennes
see many years ago.
“We used to clean and beautify
the graveyard every year in the
spring, but because of the dissolu
tion of the community and the dis
persal of the relatives, there is no
body now strong enough to care for
the graveyard,” Luther said. She
said that she hoped a patriotic or
ganization, such as Daughters of the
American Revolution, could assume
custody of the cemetery.
Mrs. Gus Bade of Bryan is also
familiar with the community and the
cemetery. She recalled that “in 1960
or around that time, the gravel pit
near the graveyard was closed by
the county authorities because
human bones were frequently dug
up with the gravel.”
Roy Foster, of Bryan, said digging
around the graveyard was stopped
by the county authorities because of
the proximity of the graves.
“After the voters decided in 1932
to join the Bryan Independent
School District, the Pleasant Hill
Community began to dissolve,”
Foster said. The community school,
or Parker School as it was then
called, was closed and the majority
of people left the community for
Bryan and other towns.
Jane A. Fuschak of Smetana and
Francis E. Mosley of Burt Lane are
granddaughters of W. J. Burt who is
buried in the Red Hill Cemetery.
They are the last members of the
Pleasant Hill Community still living
in the area.
They recall the time when not
only Pleasant Hill but many other
communities such as Riverside,
Rye, Parker and Thompson Creek
were flourishing in the area until the
government decided to consolidate
the school districts.
"Some people moved out to
another location, some sold their
land and lost contact with each
other,” Fuschak said.
“Those left behind, like us,” Fus
chak continued, “are getting older
with each day. There are not
enough of us to take care of the
cemetery as we used to do in the
past.”
Mrs. Steven D. Pearce of Bryan
was about four years old when she
left the community, but has re
turned many times for short visits.
She described the community as “a
group of hard working people, try
ing to eke out their existence of a
very poor soil.”
The life span of most people
buried in the cemetery seems to
bear out her observation. More than
half of them died before age 35.
“They operated self-supporting
farms producing their own food and
other necessities,” Pearce said.
None of these people have any so
lutions to the future of Red Hill
Cemetery. Most felt that it should
be restored to a status comparable
to other cemeteries to preserve a
valuable link to the past.
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Moss covers this tombstone marking a 74-year-old grave in
|he forgotten Red Hill Cemetery eight miles west of Bryan.
[These weather-beaten markers are the only reminder of the
lost community of Pleasant Hill. Battalion photo by Frank Vasovski
g Palesti-
state will
“If they
elegation
ined in a
■ Geneva
ilestinian
lestinian
the 1975
jening of
e NATO
Western
Moscow
in prison
BlJuFifcraf
Bonnet v
l. Patch
You are invited
to a special showing of
Photographic Art
b y
Richard Gunn
at
The Bluebonnet Patch
816 Villa Maria Road in Bryan
October 8 through 15, 1977
10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday through Saturday;
Open house with Mr. Gunn
on October 8, 1977.
nday on
[ custody
ibed her
d told a
rder the
2700 TEXAS AVE., SOUTH