Titus County, Texas Cemetery Search - Roper Panther Cemetery

The proper name of this cemetery has caused past controversy, with some preferring “Roper” and others “Panther”. Controversy notwithstanding, we will use “Roper”.

The Roper Cemetery lies about 3 miles South of Mount Pleasant and about 0.3 mile West of FM Highway 127 on private land presently owned by Frank Glover. While technically in Southeastern Titus County, the cemetery is very close to the center.

The Roper Cemetery is a medium sized public cemetery covering about an acre. Though fenced, numerous fallen limbs, underbrush, and briars surround the graves. Members of the Grigsby, Fitzgerald, Perkins, Smith, Johnson and other families are buried in this cemetery. Lynch Harper's “Cemeteries of Titus County” presents an interesting genealogy of some of those interred here, but historical facts of the cemetery are scarce.

Someone recently erected PVC pipe markers throughout the cemetery to assist in marking grave locations. A compilation of these grave markers follows: four PVC pipes only, two PVC pipe and brick, two PVC pipe and petrified wood, one PVC pipe and a funeral home marker, two pieces of petrified wood, three funeral home markers, three native rocks, and a brick bordered grave.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS FROM THE TITUS COUNTY COURTHOUSE:

Travel 0.5 mile west on West First Street to the intersection of Ferguson Road (U.S. Highway 271). Veer to the left and cross the intersection at the traffic light onto South O'Tyson Street which becomes Texas FM 127. Travel 2.8 miles south on FM 127 until you reach a private drive on the right side of the road. The cemetery lies about 0.3 miles west of the present entrance and behind the Glover barn.

GPS COORDINATES: 33°07.836' N 095°00.633' W

DECORATION DAY: None

MARKED BURIALS INDEXED IN TCS DATABASE: 43 (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: 2006-03-01

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.

Roper-Panther Cemetery sits in a grove of trees in a open pasture.

A large tree fell inside the cemetery, overturning and breaking several monuments. It needs to be removed and the monuments need resetting..

A second tree fell across the fence, allowing livestock to enter the cemetery and overturn mounments.

Livestock have toppled many markers in the cemetery that the fallen tree didn't hit.

Thanks to Commissioner Mike Fields and Joe Fejeran for their help in preserving Roper-Panther Cemetery!

After being made aware of Roper-Panther Cemetery's dire needs, Commissioner Mike Fields sent Joe Fejeran to clean the cemetery in preparation for moving in equipment needed to remove the fallen trees that had damaged the fence and monuments in the cemetery. Beginning on June 4, 2007, Joe mowed the grass, trimmed low-hanging limbs, and sawed the large tree trunk into sections so it can be moved.

ROPER-PANTHER CEMETERY NEEDS YOUR HELP TO FORM A ROPER-PANTHER CEMETERY ASSOCIATION TO ASSURE ITS FUTURE CARE. THIS CLEAN-UP AND RESTORATION IS AN EXCELLENT FIRST STEP, BUT WILL NOT LAST INDEFINITELY!

Roper-Panther Cemetery is the final resting place for people with the following surnames:

Allen, Chilton, Fitzgerald, Grigsby, Hair, Hanson, Hickman, Johnson, Moss, Nichols, Panther, Perkins, Proctor, Reed, Roberts, Robertson, Roper, Rudd, Smith, Swopes, VanHuss, West, and Wright

If you have family members buried in the Roper-Panther Cemetery, or if you care about this or other Titus County cemeteries, please contact us or Commissioner Fields and we will be pleased to help you do the things necessary to form a cemetery association to care for the cemetery so it does not return to the state is was in before Commissioner Fields lent a hand to preserve the cemetery.

A large tree fell across several markers, knocking them over. Luckily, after cutting the tree away, it appears at this point that the markers were only knocked over and were not otherwise damaged. Joe cut the limbs off the trunk and sawed the trunk into managable sections in preparation for removig it completely, which will require equipment.

Joe trimmed low hanging limbs to prevent them from falling and damaging monuments should we have an ice storm this coming winter. This also greatly improved the cemetery's overall appearance.

After trimming the limbs and putting them in piles, Joe chipped them into shavings that were blown into a low spot that did not contain burials.

He trimmed trees that had overgrown a fence surrounding a grave, mowed the cemetery, and in the process found a brick curb around a grave that was not easily visible before he started.

Although they will do much more before the cemetery is finished, by Friday, June 8, 2007 Joe's hard work had improved the cemetery so much that it didn't resemble the way it looked on the previous Monday!

Roper-Panther Cemetery needs local citizens to form an association to provide long-term maintenance for it. Contact us if you are interested in forming a Roper-Panther Cemetery Association and we will help you contact the proper people.