Eastland County Cemetery Photographs

Flatwood Cemetery
by: Webb Jordan
Rt 1 Box 44
Eastland, Texas 76448

The Flatwood Cemetery is in the Flatwood Community - Eastland County, Texas. Located six miles south of Eastland, Texas. Take Exit 340 from I-20 and go four miles south to Hwy 2563. Turn east and go 1-1/4 miles to the cemetery on the right.

The Flatwood community was established in the 1880's when cotton was king.This area was and still is a farming community. There was a cotton gin one mile north that belonged to Tom Webb which burned in 1910 and never rebuilt. Peanuts became the main crop. Now most of the peanut allotment has moved to West Texas and the main crop is grass land for hay. The first grave is Freddie F. Stokes, who died at birth 25 March 1887 and the second was a six year old girl, Ada L. Walker, who died 27 March 1898. As of 2004, the cemetery is 117 years old. There are over 400 marked graves and several unmarked. The Flatwood Cemetery is three acres and maintained by the Flatwood Cemetery Association. The original acre is on the front east side. The second acre is the front west Side and was given by Finis Laffoon in the late 1940's. The third acre is across the back (aouth) side and was given by Sid Waynick in 2002. The community was originally served by two churches, Flatwood Church of Christ and the Flatwood Methodist Church. The Methodist Church was a wood frame building with a ten foot ceiling, two front doors, three windows on each side and two windows on the back side. They had a wood tabernacle built on cedar post. That church closed about 1974. The Flatwood Church of Christ began in 1887 in a two story wood building across from the cemetery. The top floor was used by the Woodmen of the World. The lower floor was used by the Flatwood School and the church. In 1915, the building was blown off its foundation and was not rebuilt. The school moved one mile to the East where it remained until 1944. The Flatwood Church of Christ built a wooden tabernacle (about 32' x 32') and boarded it up with 1" x 12" boards. A couple of windows on the East and West side and a couple of doors on the South side facing the cemetery. I remember the cold winter days with a wood stove on a wood platform (6' x 6') in the center of the tabernacle and the home made pews sitting in the dirt. In the mid 1940's, the church had a old home moved in and used it for a building. They removed the inside walls and enclosed the porch on both sides and made two classrooms. Then in the 1960's, the men of the congregation built a nice brick church building, which is still being used today. A few years later, the men built a three bedroom brick house for the minister.

---