Titus County, Texas Cemetery Search - Johnson Batte Cemetery

The Johnson-Batte Cemetery is located about 7 miles East of Mt. Pleasant on the South side of FM Highway 1000 on a 40 acre tract of land owned by G. Q. Davis heirs. The cemetery was named after the J. F. Johnson family, who was probably one of the first families to live in the area and owned this land. The land is also believed to have been owned by W. C. Batte.

Lynch Harper states in his books that the Batte Family first gave the cemetery and that in all probability Mrs. Batte was buried there in 1859. He further states that from information he had the cemetery was a large cemetery.

Mr. Harper covers the cemetery's convoluted history extensively in his book.

A lost Afro-American cemetery is on North side of FM 1000. Both White and Afro-American sites had numerous graves, but all remnants of that cemetery have been removed.

In addition to two marked graves, a large native stone and a monument base evidently marked two additional grave sites.

2008 UPDATE

We have been informed that the two graves inside the chain link fence were disinterred and moved to another cemetery. The other graves in the Johnson-Batte Cemetery were not moved.

The land has been sold, and is again for sale in smaller tracts. We hope the new owners do not build houses over this cemetery or otherwise desecrate it.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS FROM THE TITUS COUNTY COURTHOUSE:

Travel South on Madison Street for 0.3 mile to the intersection with U.S. 271 (Ferguson Road). Turn left onto Ferguson Road and continue Southeast through the traffic light at the South Jefferson Street intersection. Ferguson Road becomes Texas Highway 49. Continue 5.5 miles to the intersection of Texas FM 1000 (from the left) with Highway 49. Turn left on FM 1000 and continue for 1.5 miles. The cemetery lies about 50 yards on the right in a pasture.

Johnson-Batte Cemetery sits in a pasture on the south side of

Texas FM-1000

The second remaining marker belongs to Mattew Ernest Holland, son of Gene and Zena Holland. It is enclosed in a small chain-link fence

The dates are October 23-27, 1974. We question these dates, as the marker is worn and hard to read, and we feel that a marker cut in 1974 would still be deeply debossed. There are no listings in Titus County for his parents.

GPS COORDINATES: 33°07.264' N 094°51.567' W

DECORATION DAY: None

MARKED BURIALS INDEXED IN TCS DATABASE: 3 (2008-04-01)

FREE BURIAL INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS CEMETERY.

SEE "HOW TO REQUEST BURIAL INFORMATION" PAGE FOR DETAILS.

(NOTE: This cemetery contains un-marked burials that could not be included in the Titus Cemetery Search database.)

LAST TCS PHYSICAL SURVEY: 2006-12-17

Historical information for this cemetery was provided by and used with the permission of David Horton, and was compiled from Mr. Horton's work and the earlier work of Lynch Harper. Map provided courtesy of Ark-La-Tex Council of Governments GIS department. Please forward any mapping questions to http://www.atcog.org/gis_mapping.htm.

The un-fenced marker for the 1859 gravesite of Dr. George M. Savage, son of Samuel and Millie Savage, has been knocked over and broken and lies flat on the ground.

The Johnson Batte Cemetery sits in an open pasture south of Texas FM-1000 in the Pleasant Grove Community.

One remaining marked grave is fenced, the other is not.