FIRST -- burial in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Fort Worth TX - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

The grave of Thomas Hill in beautiful, historic Mount Olivet Cemetery is marked with a simple new gravestone confirming his status as the first interment at Mount Olivet.

The 1986 historical marker in front of Mount Olivet lists Zenas Ewen Kerr, buried 11 Apr 1907, as the first burial in the cemetery. This is incorrect.

When Blasterz visited Mount Olivet both to pay our respects to Mama Blaster's paternal great grandparents and to waymark the first burial here, we were referred to one of the funeral directors, Carl McReynolds.

McReynolds kept hearing from colleagues that the historic marker was wrong, so he set out to solve the question once and for all. About twenty years after the Mt. Olivet historic marker was placed, McReynolds personally pored through all the old records -- including the loose ones -- until he found all the oldest burials. he identified Mr. Hill's burial on 9 Apr 1907 as the very first one. Hill's burial actually pre-dates the "official" dedication of the cemetery on 11 May 1907.

Hill's grave had been missed in the 1980s most likely because it was unmarked. McReynolds sought permission from his bosses at Mt. Olivet to pay for a special marker with Hill's status as first burial inscribed upon it. His request was quickly approved, and the marker was installed in a nice respectful ceremony attended by cemetery staff. After a century, no surviving family members could be found to invite to Hill's tombstone installation ceremony.

McReynolds directed us right to Hill's tombstone. We thank him for sharing his story with us, so that we can share it with the community.

Hill's grave is in the Pioneers section of Mount Olivet, Section No. 1, the oldest section of the cemetery. It is not far from the Blasterz Wright family graves, which are next to a WoW gravestone we waymarked earlier.

If you come to Mount Olivet to gather the waymarks in Pioneers, be sure and wander around here and in the next section over (Early Settlers) for a while. There are people here from Mexico, Europe, Asia, and everywhere in between. The Chinese language grave markers are fascinating, as are the markers showing the different cultures of the other immigrant populations here (Mama Blaster's Wrights are Irish immigrants). People don't think of Fort Worth as being such an international city at the turn of the 20th century.

Mama Blaster remembers a grave nearby (in Early Settlers, perhaps) of a young man who was murdered around 1915 for his motorbike. On his tombstone, his mother excoriates the cowards who killed her son, and begs for information to solve the crime. That one is heartbreaking.

In our opinion, the Pioneers and Early Settlers sections of are the most fascinating areas at Mount Olivet. It's why we have spent so much time waymarking here! We invite you to come out and find your own interesting waymarks here -- we promise we have left some :)

FIRST - Classification Variable: Item or Event Date of FIRST: 04/09/1907 More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   12/14/2012 Benchmark Blasterz visited it