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Arjane Hill Yarborough and Cyrena Hill Cox Burnett received their father's 1842 landholdings. According to area lore, a parcel including this site was used as a family burial ground beginning in the 1850s. Arjane sold a portion of her land to a relative, Elizabeth Alexander, who in turn gave an acre adjoining the burial ground to trustees of a community school in 1870. The first known burials in this cemetery were those of three-year-old Annie L. Wilson, who died in 1873, and five-year-old Finis Kimberling, who died in 1875. Cyrena Hill Burnett and her husband Daniel H. Burnett gave property for a public burial ground, to be called Burnett Cemetery, in 1888. In the summer of 1895 a revival was held across the road from the cemetery. Worshipers began holding regular meetings in the schoolhouse, then moved into their own facility adjoining the cemetery. The church, school and cemetery became known as "Gum Springs" for a nearby spring surrounded by sweet gum trees, and the area became a center of the Gum Springs farming community. Among the notable pioneers buried here are Cyrena Hill Box Burnett and Martha Elizabeth Chilcoat Kimberling, both citizens of the Republic of Texas. Other pioneers interred here include members of the Callahan, Dollahite, Grimes, Kuykendall, Latham, McKay, Miles, Pliler, Rogers, Russell, Taylor, Wilson and Woodall families. W. A. Miles, one of the first three school trustees, served in the Mexican War and lost an arm in the Civil War. At the turn of the 21st century, Miles was one of 58 war veterans interred among the 800 graves on this site, including seven Civil War soldiers; one Spanish-American War veteran; and thirty veterans of World War II, five of whom were killed in action. (2000) |
