The Denison Herald
August 19, 1973

Inflation Affects Even Cemeteries
By John Crawford

Georgetown - Georgetown Cemetery Association has been forced to raise prices of burial spaces to meet rising costs of upkeep on the 123- year-old burial ground located northwest of Pottsboro on a  tree-shaded hill.  Through a misunderstanding, grave site fees were not charged for many years.  Everyone thought that George Reeves - known as "Uncle George"- deeded
the land as a free burial ground.
However, G.P. "Pat" Baker of Denison, president of the Georgetown Cemetery Association and caretaker, reports that this is not true.  "He didn't give it, that there has been a mistake that has been made all of these years,"  Baker explained, quoting from an abstract secured when cemetery property was leased to Shell Oil Co. in 1958.
"Back yonder he had a boy, the record is, he had a boy that lived at Gunter, and they didn't have any burying place down there, and he brought it up here," Baker said, referring to the body of a baby girl who had died.
"His dad told him, 'You go over there and measure off'' - what we call the old part - "And I will deed it to Pottsboro and Georgetown as a public burying ground," so he did," continued Baker.  There was a fraction over 4 acres in that original cemetery, and since then, a 6 and 2 two-acre tracts have been added west of the original area.
In the beginning, there was no Association, and people just came in and picked burial spots at random with no regulation.  And they paid nothing.  This practice continued until recent years.
Because of the misconception about the old part being free, no charge was made until a few months ago when a $10 fee was initiated there, as had been charged in the newer parts.
"If it hadn't been taken as a free burying ground, look at what money the cemetery could have had.  Look at the people buried there and never a dime out of it," he gestured across the original section.
Just a few weeks ago, the Association raised the rate to $15 in the old part and $25 per grave space in the new part of the Georgetown Cemetery.  There is also an annual $5 maintenance fee, but cemetery officials admit that is hard to collect, and only part of the money which could come in that way ever does.
The cemetery board hopes that the higher fees for burial plots will help faltering finances and also aid development of the latest 2-acre purchase which cost $3,100.
Mrs. F.G. Finke, secretary of the association, noted that the group had enough money to pay for the new addition, but that it will cost to fence and develop it, especially with the cost of labor these days.
Trees that cover the Georgetown Cemetery add much to the tranquil atmosphere, but they also add to the maintenance effort required.  "I like trees in a cemetery, however, they are messy.  They have to do a lot of leaf raking," and one year a fire to burn off a vacant place was spread over a large area of the cemetery by a gust of wind.  But the only damage was a little soot on some of the headstones.
Mrs. Wilma Sharpe, a former Georgetown secretary who had to give up the job because of eye problems, still helps Mrs. Finke.  Her husband, Arthur, and son, Laverne, are buried in the north section of the cemetery.  Laverne was a pilot killed August 11, 1942 at the age of 21.   He is one of many military men buried at Georgetown, including a number of Civil War veterans.
George Reeves was himself a Confederate veteran, and in addition, served twice in the Texas Legislature from 1855 to 1 861, then, after the Civil War, returned as Speaker of the House in 1881 and 1882. "He rode horseback from here to Austin," noted Baker whose father, William Baker, also fought in the Civil War, returning to Huntsville, Arkansas to marry Kim Banks and move to Corsicana for a year then to Denison where Baker was born April 12, 1884.  He spent all his life in the Denison and Locust area except 2 years in Missouri.  Baker's father was caretaker of Oakwood Cemetery in Denison a couple of years while the family lived there.
The latest war hero to be buried in the Georgetown Cemetery was Albert John "Ajax" Baumler, Flying Tiger and Spanish Civil War aerial ace officially credited with shooting down 13 enemy aircraft in combat.  Baumler was not originally from this area but lived near the Georgetown cemetery after his retirement at Perrin AFB.  Later, he moved to Denison where he lived at the time of his death.  Mrs. Baumler explained that when they lived in this area, they used to ride horses around the cemetery area.
"It was so quiet and peaceful and he told me that if anything ever happened to him, he wanted to be buried in this quiet, little western cemetery," Mrs. Baumler said.  And her words are description of Georgetown Cemetery where big shade trees are studded over the landscape and spots of heavy shade alternate with the sunshine.
The Association is trying hard to keep Georgetown the neat, well-kept cemetery that it has always been, figuring the additional grave space fees will help and still not be a burden on families who use the cemetery.
Because of the lack of organization during the early days, some graves have obviously been lost, and an effort is being made to correct this in the future.
Mrs. Velma Edwards of Denison has drawn up a plat of the newer part of the cemetery so that lot sales can be made in an orderly fashion.  She has also agreed to work up a plat of the old part, but this is expected to be considerable more work since that is the area where the most disorder exists and the oldest graves are located.
Several years ago, the Association put a small marker on the older grave, that of Mary Reeves, the granddaughter of George Reeves, whose death started the cemetery, and a Texas historical marker has been put on the grave of Reeves himself, denoting his public service and that Reeves County in West Texas is named after him.
There are many interesting graves and headstones in the old cemetery.  Two Symcox graves are covered with pyramids of brick apparently laid to assure that the graves would be undisturbed.
A native ironstone rock stone has the inscription carved in with a  knife. It reads: "Lucy A. Crabee [sic], age 24 years, 7 months, 14 days, A.D. 1856."
One of the larger markers in the cemetery marks the final resting place of W.B. "Cap" Grant, born at Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1806.  He died in 1871, and the inscription on his stone reads: "Take warning you people as you walk by, as you are now, so once was I.  But now I am lying in the cold, cold grave."