McCrary Cemetery, also called Dorsey Cemetery, McClellan Cemetery, or West New Hope Cemetery, is one of Titus County's most unique cemeteries. It covers a large area atop a hill just North of Dorsey Branch in far Northwest Titus County. Its unique feature is that some graves are marked with hewn bridge timbers. West New Hope Methodist Church was once in the cemetery's vicinity, but the church was subsequently moved, leaving no structures in the area and nothing to indicate the cemetery's presence. A metal pipe gate with metal wagon wheels marks access to the cemetery. No fence protects the graves and the area is grossly overgrown with large briars and underbrush. The cemetery has been abandoned for some time and will become lost without prompt intervention.
David Horton speculates that the cemetery contains numerous graves, but only three have monuments. He has marked some gravesites with small wooden crosses to help prevent them from being totally lost in the undergrowth. Other graves were marked by an unreadable funeral home marker, eight with native stones, one with carved timber, and four with straight timber markers.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS FROM THE TITUS COUNTY COURTHOUSE:
Travel 0.3 mile west on West First Street to the intersection of Edwards Avenue. Turn right (north) on Edwards and proceed for 1.6 miles across US 67 and under Interstate 30 to a fork in the road. Take the right fork (Old Paris Road) and continue 1.8 miles to the intersection of US 271. Proceed through that intersection and continue on Titus County Road 1200 for 2.8 miles to the intersection from the left with County Road 1220. Turn left onto County Road 1220 and after 3.4 miles and just past the merge with County Road 1165, the cemetery lies on the left of County Road 1165 and approximately 50 yards on the crest of the hill.
McCrary Cemetery sits in thick brush on a hill behind this gate.
One of only three marble monuments in McCrary Cemetery sits among the weed and underbrush
McCrary Cemetery is located on Titus County Road 1165
GPS COORDINATES: 33°13.169' N 095°05.372' 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-named burials marked by irregular makers like natural stones and other methods that could not be included in the Titus Cemetery Search database.)
LAST TCS PHYSICAL SURVEY: 2006-12-22
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 small "Cemetery" sign beside the gate would be missed had someone not written "Cemetery" in the road with spray paint
The cemetery contains a number of wooden markers for early graves
The cemetery is badly over-grown with vegetation and markers are hard to see among the weeds and briars
McCrary contains many wooden markers, but only 3 marble monuments
Almost impossible to see even now, David Horton marked some grave sites with small wooden crosses to prevent them from being totally lost
McCrary Cemetery needs to be cleaned now to prevent it from being lost to the vegetation
McCrary Cemetery
West New Hope Community, Titus County, Texas
also known as Dorsey, McClellan, or West New Hope Cemetery
