KAUFMAN COUNTY INDIGENT CEMETERY

    This burial ground is part of 600 acres purchased for use as a Poor Farm operated by Kaufman County beginning in 1883.  It is the final resting place for some of Kaufman County´s citizens who were Poor Farm residents, county jail inmates, paupers, transients and other indigents.  It is believed that anonymous victims of an 1871 typhoid fever epidemic were the first to be interred at this site, but the earliest marked grave is that of Poor Farm Inmate George McCorkin who died the year it opened.  Though many graves remain unmarked, the cemetery is a place of final dignity for those whose names remain among those now forgotten.

HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2002

History:  This site began as a burial place for indigent persons whose identity was not known or whose family could not afford to bury them.  It is also a known burial place of prisoners from the Kaufman County Jail, bodies of persons never identified or claimed and for epidemic victims in the 1800's.  Around the turn of the century it became a favored burial site for Hispanics in the county, also.  It is on land that was purchased by William Love from C. A. Lovejoy in 1849.  It was inherited by William Love's son, James and was passed on to his wife, Eliza Jane Stephenson Love, who sold it to Kaufman County in the 1880's.

Enumeration:

Large WOW monument: W N Anderson Born Aug 15, 1866 Died Sept 10, 1921

Martina M Trevino
June 15, 1910
June 11, 1934

4' high concrete cross no name or dates

3.5' concrete obelisk - no name or dates

broken stone - laying flat:
Dominga Reynosa
Nasio        Marso 21, 1920
Fallesio    Octubre 19, 1928
"Recuerdo de Padres
  Hermanos Esta Nina"

Concrete tomb:
Julio R Aguirre Jr
1902 - 1929

concrete cross in chain link fence:
Gil Arebalo

Base of cross is leaning against a mequite tree:
Recurdo A Yldefonzo
H des Olibures
Nasio      Abr 16, 1918
Fallesio  D'cmbr 4, 1918

Enumerated April 3, 1999 by Kenna Leseman & K K Hunt

On January 2, 2003 the Kaufman County Indigent Cemetery was re-inspected for "lost" burials. This was done because in late December 2002 the western side of the cemetery was mowed and cleared of heavy underbrush for the first time in several years, which allowed a re-enumeration of that portion to be done.  The following is a list interments found on the site at that time.
Kathey Kelley Hunt
Kaufman County Historical Commission
Cemetery Preservation Committee Chairperson

ENUMERATION ADDITIONS:

Margaret A Anderson
1931- 2001
FHM (no funeral home name listed)

Charles Bradley
1938 - 2001
FHM (no name of Funeral home on marker)

John Randolph Connally
14 Jun 1934 - 31 May 1997
(Marble tombstone)

Sammie Eddies
1916-2001
FHM Anderson Clayton

Joe Glock
1926 - 2001
FHM (Anderson Clayton Funeral Home )

Ruth Hastey
14 May 1930 - 30 Oct 1998
(marble tombstone)

Brayant Long
1925 - 1993
(hard plastic marker - flat, black with embossed white letters)

Patrice Costello Ochoa
1928 - 1998
(marble tombstone)

Luan Pham
17 Jun 1913 - 25 Apr 1990
(marble tombstone)

Lula Fay Retschke
1943 - 1961
(metal decorative marker inside chain link fence)
**Note- this marker has been placed here since August 2002 - all that was in fence prior was a broken limestone cross

Baby Shands
1997-1997
FHM no name of funeral home

G. Joe Strickland
18 Apr 1939 - 10 Jan 1994
"Left a Lifetime of memories"
(Marble tombstone)

Timmy Dee Swain
No dates
FHM (Parker-Ashworth)

**THOSE WITH INCOMPLETE / ILLEGIBLE MARKERS

Joe B______ 1919-1989 FHM unreadable

Sandra Earlyne Gra___n 1922-1969 FHM unreadable/bent

_____ Cyrus F____ (could be Findley) FHM ______-1987 (bent)

Enumeration done Jan. 2, 2003 by K K Hunt, Rex Williams & Keith Matthews

KNOWN BURIALS from COUNTY DEATH RECORDS

Names taken from a list of known burials:

Buried in Unmarked grave at Kaufman Indigent / Poor Farm
King Martin
Died 16 Mar 1900

The Terrell Times Star - 23 Mar 1900, Friday
"King Martin, a Negro, was hanged last Friday at the poor farm in the presence of sixty witnesses, although about fifteen hundred people showed up to see the hanging.  His remains were buried by the county.  He had raped a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Wilson, white, on July 6th last.  The last legal hanging in Kaufman County took place November 3rd, 1876, when two negroes, Eugene Catchings and Bill Payne were hung for murdering John Love."

Kaufman Sun - 23 Mar 1900
King Martin, a Negro, was hung in Kaufman on March 16th.  He was buried on the county farm.  His crime was assaulting a fifteen year old girl near Abner last July.

• Poor Farm
• Kaufman County Cemetery Central
• Kaufman County Cemeteries and Known Burial Sites
• African-Americans in Kaufman County