TX Prairie Valley Cemetery, Whitney, Hill County, Texas

bdtex

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On Friday, July 2, 2021, I visited Prairie Valley Cemetery off HCR 2101 in the rural outskirts of Whitney, Hill County, Texas. It is south of Whitney, Texas just before you get to the Lake Whitney Dam. The occasion was a July 4th Weekend trip to Lake Whitney in Hill County, Texas and the cemetery was a 14 minute drive from the lodge me and my family were staying at. It is across the street from Prairie Valley Baptist Church. Google Maps was acting up on my phone, but I knew the general area where the cemetery was and when I got there, there were signs for the church that pointed me in the right directions. There was a lotta rain in the forecast later that day and into the weekend. I unloaded my truck when we got to the lodge and busted a move for the cemetery. It was the closest one on my list for the weekend and I didn't know if/when I'd get another chance. My first picture shows that I arrived at 3:35pm CST.
 
There are 535 burials at Prairie Valley Cemetery according to FindAGrave. From FindAGrave, Ancestry and fold3, I was able to determine that 6 Confederate veterans and 1 Union veteran are buried in Prairie Valley Cemetery and that 3 had/have military stones and 4 had/have civilian stones. I had my usual list of names of the veterans, their regiment and type of gravestone. I also had grave marker flags and a full weekend stone cleaning kit. With rain in the forecast all weekend and my whole family there, I wasn't sure how many cemeteries I might get to visit or how much stone cleaning I would be able to do but I went prepared anyway. The pictures of a couple of the military stones and 3 civilian stones in FindAGrave looked pretty bad and I had it in my notes that they needed cleaning. Those 5 gravestones got some degree of scraping, scrubbing or spraying. The rain wasn't due for a few hours so they had a good soak. I can go back there to followup during future lake weekend trips too. As you can see from the pics, I had the place to myself. Somebody was mowing the church grounds across the street and a car occasionally drove by. Other than that it was pretty quiet. It was pretty warm that day too.

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1193098/prairie-valley-cemetery
 
Another great looking cemetery. Thanks for taking us along.
 
Pvt. E.L. Gray, Co. D, 28th Texas Cavalry . 13 fold3 pages. He enlisted in Rusk County at age 27 on May 5, 1862 for 3 years. He was furloughed a couple of weeks after enlisting but present on all Company Muster Rolls after that which end at February 1864 in his records. He was sick at Camp Nelson, Arkansas from 10/25/62-12/23/62. He did "extra duty as a nurse in hospital at Camp Nelson" during part of his service. I visited Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery in June 2017. Scraped and sprayed his gravestone before I left.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16607185/ephriam-lafayette-gray


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I found a Texas Muster Card for Pvt. Gray in Ancestry.

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A Headstone Application for Pvt. Gray was submitted in March 1931 by "Mrs. Gertie Myers". I could not determine what, if any, her relation was to him.

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Pvt. John W. Monroe, Co. E, 16th Georgia Infantry and Co. H, 11th Georgia Cavalry . 16th GA INF...5 fold3 pages. A Regimental Return for February 1862 says "Date: Feb. 3 '62, Place: Camp, Remarks: Recruit" Captured at Crampton's Gap on September 14,1862 and paroled. He appears on a Roll of POWs sent for exchange from Fort Delaware, Del. to Aikens Landing, VA, on October 2,1862 and declared Exchanged on November 10, 1862. That is all of his 16th GA Infantry records in fold3. His second wife submitted a Widow's Pension Application on 11/18/1930, approved same day. She said he later enlisted in Co. H, 11th Georgia Cavalry. Nothing for him in fold3 in that Regiment. He was in that Regiment according to NPS. According to NPS, the Regiment was organized in November 1864 which might explain the lack of fold3 records for this soldier. His gravesite was in a curbed family plot with 3-4 kinfolk, all with the same style gravestone.

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search...oldierId=932CD8BB-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=CGA0011RC01


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16234091/john-wesley-monroe


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Any idea how many Texas cemeteries are on your to-do list? This is an admirable work that you do.
I do need to count them just so I'll know myself. 2 more got added to the list this weekend. Took an alternate route to Lake Whitney and passed one on the way. Found another one online while killing time waiting for thunderstorms to pass. All the rain we have been getting has really disrupted my summer visitation wish list.
 
Great job. I wonder how many ex-Confederate soldiers moved to Texas to start a “new life”? Years ago I tried to research a friend’s ancestor who lived in Georgia before the War and Texas after it. It was impossible to find his records back in those old days.

Part of my family moved to Texas before the War.
 
Pvt. Paulinus V. Walling, Co. D, 19th Texas Cavalry. 4 fold3 pages. He enrolled and mustered-in at age 16 on March 28, 1862 for the war. Paid a $50 Bounty on June 24, 1862. He signed the Bounty Pay and Receipt Roll by making his mark "X'. He appears on a Register Of Payments To Discharged Soldiers. It says he was discharged on August 4, 1862(doesn't say why) and paid on February 18,1863(doesn't say how much). His name is misspelled on FindAGrave. All other records, including the Pension Application submitted by his Widow in April 1918 and approved in September 1918, have his first name as "Paulinus". The picture of his gravestone on FindAGrave was helpful in finding it at the cemetery. The material the stone was made from is very coarse. Scraping and/or scrubbing it doesn't do much good. I sprayed the inscription area real good. I'll check on it next time I go there.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16647636/paulimay-vance-walling


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Great job. I wonder how many ex-Confederate soldiers moved to Texas to start a “new life”?
A lot from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee did. Texas escaped the kind of destruction those states suffered.
 
Pvt. Elijah Worley, Co. D, 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry(USA). 8 fold3 pages. His Company Muster-in Roll says he enrolled on 12/29/63 in Savannah,TN for 1 year and Mustered-in on 2/1/64 in Nashville. He is listed as Present on all Company Muster Rolls for 1864. He Mustered-out in Nashville on 2/1/65. He died in 1885. His Widow filed a Pension Application on October 4, 1890. NPS has a pretty good history of his regiment. He has an individual gravestone and a shared gravestone with his wife. His individual gravestone is/was almost unreadable and it's the kind that I do not scrape or scrub. I'm scared of breaking 'em. I sprayed it real good with D/2 before I left. If I'd had more time, I would've scrubbed the shared stone. Maybe next time.

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UTN0002RIT

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search...oldierId=957B06E1-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16477125/elijah-worley


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A lot from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee did. Texas escaped the kind of destruction those states suffered.
I'm aware of many moving from Georgia to central Texas in the first few years after the war, then another wave later and then another wave in the early 1890's. The second and third waves moved in response to info received from the earlier waves. Arriving in Texas where friends were already settled helped reduce the risk of moving to a place you had never visited.

In the early 1890 wave, some railroads rented box cars to movers in Georgia and the car stayed theirs until the got off in Texas. In our family's case, six or seven entire families, with all goods and livestock, moved at once. Upon arrival in Waco, they rented farm land and eventually bought the farms. When I was young, I knew many of the children (then old) of those who had moved.
 
Pvt. Elijah Worley, Co. D, 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry(USA). 8 fold3 pages. His Company Muster-in Roll says he enrolled on 12/29/63 in Savannah,TN for 1 year and Mustered-in on 2/1/64 in Nashville.
Ah! A Unionist from middle Tennessee. That made me wonder if he was one of those who moved to Texas to escape his past: meaning did he serve in the Confederacy and switch over to the Union?

I checked FOLD3 and found more than a dozen WORLEY names who served in Tennessee Confederate units. There was one E. S. Worley who served briefly in Capt. James Witcher's Company Home Guards of Sullivan County Reserves. He was soon listed as AWOL. However, Sullivan County is in the far Eastern end of the State so I don't think this is the same person. It would be interesting to research all the WORLEY's who lived around Hardin County before the war and how many served in Confederate units vs Union units. There is probably an interesting story there somewhere.
 
DixieRifles spurs the question as to whether bdtex has knowledge of much conflict in post-war Texas between Confederate and Union veterans, or was it mostly let it go?
 
DixieRifles spurs the question as to whether bdtex has knowledge of much conflict in post-war Texas between Confederate and Union veterans, or was it mostly let it go?
I haven't read or heard anything about that in particular but that's an interesting question. I don't know a lot about Reconstruction or postwar relations between Confederate and Union enlisted men.
 
Ah! A Unionist from middle Tennessee. That made me wonder if he was one of those who moved to Texas to escape his past: meaning did he serve in the Confederacy and switch over to the Union?

I checked FOLD3 and found more than a dozen WORLEY names who served in Tennessee Confederate units. There was one E. S. Worley who served briefly in Capt. James Witcher's Company Home Guards of Sullivan County Reserves. He was soon listed as AWOL. However, Sullivan County is in the far Eastern end of the State so I don't think this is the same person. It would be interesting to research all the WORLEY's who lived around Hardin County before the war and how many served in Confederate units vs Union units. There is probably an interesting story there somewhere.
According to FindAGrave, his wife's name was Rebecca. Both he and Rebecca were in the same residence in Hill County in the 1880 Census and she filed the Pension Application in 1890. It's him. Don't know his middle name or initial though.

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