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Richard W. Barnes of Tennessee bears the distinction of resting in the earliest recorded grave on this site, dated September 1883. His wife Elizabeth (Green) and seven known descendants also are buried here. More than 15 burials had already taken place on this site when Joe C. Moore sold the surrounding land to J. L. F. Dilbeck in 1893. Dilbeck, a merchant, buried several members of his own family in the cemetery. Serving a radius of about five miles, the cemetery was primarily used by Peaster community Baptists until the turn of the century. Those interred here include farmers, merchants, teachers, ministers, and other settlers. One such pioneer was Sarah A. (Curlin) Dodson, who arrived in the Republic of Texas in 1839. She came to the Peaster community after the death of her husband, Charles Dodson, Jr. Sarah Dodson worked as a midwife while raising six children. Her descendants remained in Parker County. A 1997count revealed 344 marked graves within 2.7 acres in Dilbeck Cemetery, including twenty-five anonymous graves marked only with rocks. At that time more than 23 members of the Stevens clan comprised the largest family group, and more than twenty veterans of American and international conflicts were interred here. (1998) |
