I Remember Prairie Point Cemetery

Prairie Point

Just north of Kerens, Texas, on Texas Farm Road 636, a few miles before you get to Brown’s Valley, is the community of Bazette, Texas. Population? Probably less than fifty souls. A few miles east by northeast, on a dusty farm road, you will come to a curve in the road, where Uncle Foy’s house used to stand. The curve turns the road north again. Just a few hundred yards north, one will come to what the Indians would possibly call a sipapu, a hole in this world that leads to the next, a portal between two existences, a place called Prairie Point.

As long as I can remember life, I remember Prairie Point, the sipapu for many of those who I have known and loved, who have traveled through that portal to the next world. Prairie Point is a cemetery. A Methodist Episcopal congregation established it on June 5, 1855. My guess is that there are a couple thousand graves among the three distinct sections of the cemetery. However, I have never thought of Prairie Point as a place of death, but as a place of love, hope, life, and celebration. Some of my fondest memories are centered around Prairie Point. Every July, the third Saturday I believe, in a mystical sort of way, two worlds come together at a sipapu called Prairie Point at an event called the Prairie Point picnic. Family, friends, and “others” gather around boards nailed to old trees that form the large circular dinning table, where foods of all types are spread out for all to eat. Just across the dusty road that passes through the “foyer” of the cemetery is another group of trees, again connected by boards to form a pen of sorts, where the cold drinks are iced down and sold to the hot, thirsty crowd.

In my youth, we went almost every July to the Prairie Point picnic. It was a pilgrimage of sorts. Mother had grown up east of Prairie Point on her daddy’s farm and Daddy grew up and lived near Montfort and Chatfield, west and northwest of the area. Mother and Daddy were married down the road in Bazette at the Methodist Church parsonage. Their first two children, William Edward and Helen Jo, were born while living on Jasper Tramel’s farm near Prairie Point. Momma Bedie and all Mother’s sisters, brothers, and their children (my cousins) would almost always be at the picnic. Uncle Elijah, Aunt Johnnie, and Florene would usually come from their farm near Tom Bean, Texas. Uncle Jim and his family, Aunt Hester and her family, and Grandmother Nelson would also be there. Uncle Tom’s wife, Lorene, would come most years. Uncle Tom had long crossed through the sipapu into the other world, but in that mystical way, he was also there. Also there, across the fence north of the picnic tables, were my grandfathers, William Jasper Tramel and Edward Jefferson “Ed” Nelson (both having passed away before I was born); both my maternal great grandparents, Elijah and Thena Davis Tramel and John and Sarah Carpenter Deskin; and, according to my Mother, seven generations of Tramels, including Danny Tramel whose grave always attracted me because of his little toys lying near his grave.

The kids would run immediately upon arrival to the “trinket” stand where almost anything of “no value” could be purchased for a dollar. The paddleball was always my favorite. The rest of the day would consist of eating, drinking cokes, eating snow cones, and playing in the old church that once was in the center of the picnic grounds; the church where they said goodbye to Uncle Tom years ago. The adults would sit and talk for hours, usually about good times and good people, especially those who were on the other side of the sipapu for the first time that year. There was always laughter. Usually, someone would give a talk or a speech or a testimony in the late afternoon, encouraging people to contribute to the upkeep of the cemetery. There is no “land” charge to be buried there if your family has reserved a lot. The upkeep is supported entirely by family and friends. Before we left for the day, we always took a walk (usually as a family) through the cemetery, visiting those who were silent in this world, but probably very vocal in the next.

One of my fondest memories, one that is captured on videotape, was when Mother and my family, Martha, Lisa, and Laura, had our own picnic one afternoon at Prairie Point. The video captures Lisa and Laura walking toward one of the outdoor toilets, showing excitement, curiosity, hesitation, and other emotions about the “new” adventure. It also captures Mother walking through the cemetery talking about the “genealogy” of the cemetery, especially the old part. It captures that moment when Laura decides that, “This grave must be that of a baseball player…”, because the initials MET were engraved on the foot stone of the grave.

Anthony was the first of my generation to pass through the sipapu of Prairie Point. He was so young and I cried because Uncle Foy cried. Jennye is the most recent of my generation to go home to Prairie Point, far too soon in her life’s journey. Since my youth, most of the adults of my youth are now on the other side. Grandmother Nelson (Sarah Ellen Garner Nelson) and Momma Bedie (Sarah Beatrice Deskin Tramel) are now beside Ed and Jasper, respectively. Aunt Lorene is now with Uncle Tom, along with their daughter Tommye Lorene and their infant son. Mother and Daddy are buried not too far from Uncle Jim and Aunt Jewel in the newer part of the cemetery. Mother and Daddy are the only ones buried in their lot of ten or twelve gravesites. I have not gone to a Prairie Point picnic since Mother died. I should go. It would be fun.

On most days, I suppose the cemetery is silent with very few on this side of the sipapu present. Usually, you will find Uncle Foy around. He takes care of the cemetery these days, mostly out of love, weeding the weeds in the two older, sandy sections and mowing the new section. Occasionally, you will find family and friends just visiting. However, it is my suspicion that just on the other side of the sipapu “they” are waiting. Time will end on this side for us all one day, but on the other side are saints who, in this world, were known as Joe, Vennie, Bedie, Jim, Jasper, Tom, Sarah, and ...... saints who will help us go through the sipapu called Prairie Point.

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Submitted by: Ron T Nelson - 1997