Gainesville Hanging Cemetery

Gainesville Hanging Cemetery Now on Findagrave

FindaGrave.com now has a virtual cemetery for the men who died in the Great Hangings. The descendants have long been denied from being able to visit a grave site or memorial with names for their ancestors who died in the Hangings.

As noted in a previous post, after the men were hanged, their bodies were thrown into an empty warehouse building on the west side of the town square. A few of the families were able to claim the body of their loved one, but most of the grieving, frightened widows could not find able bodied men to help them (anyone caught helping the widowed families were themselves arrested.) Most of executed men were left for the court officials to bury. Some were buried in hurriedly made coffins, but when the scrap lumber from the torn-down house was used up, the rest of the men were wrapped in old blankets and buried in shallow graves along the banks of Pecan Creek. It has been said that rains washed away the dirt covering some of the graves and that wild pigs dug up some graves.

All that being said, except for the descendants of about 5 of the men who died the Hangings, the rest of the descendants have NO known grave to visit. What a shame the state or county has never placed a memorial marker with all the names of the men who perished in the Hangings.

Now, a virtual cemetery has been created on FindaGrave. If you have an ancestor who died in the Great Hanging, visit the Great Hanging Burial Site on findagrave.com and leave a note & (virtual) flower for your ancestor. If you want, you can also leave a picture, story, obituary or add family links. Also, you can have the memorial of your ancestor transferred to you by just contacting the person who created the memorial.

Go to FindaGrave Website:  http://www.findagrave.com/  -- Then perform a search for your Great Hanging ancestor in Cooke County, Texas.