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This cemetery has served the Linn Flat community since the middle 19th century. John Polk deeded the land as a burial ground in 1849 and stipulated that he be buried in the cemetery's center. Records indicate the earliest grave, unmarked, dates to 1837 and belongs to William Hamilton. The earliest marked grave is that of Polk's wife, Elizabeth Allen Polk, who died in 1855. The Linn Flat community itself was founded in 1851, the year after Robert E. Wynne became the town's first postmaster. Named for the local groves of Linn trees, Linn Flat grew and prospered until it was bypassed by the Texas & New Orleans Railroad in 1903. For more than a century, local families maintained the cemetery, adding protective fencing and a tabernacle. A formal association received its charter in 1972, and the community continues to use the burial ground and hold annual homecoming reunions. Veterans of American military conflicts from as early as the Civil War are buried here. With hundreds of marked gravesites, the cemetery preserves the history of Linn Flat, now a dispersed rural community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002 |
