STIFF CHAPEL CEMETERY - SE of MELISSA
CR412
Cemeteries of Collin County, Texas, by Joy
Gough
Jesse Stiff and
his family came to this area in 1835 making them some of the earliest settlers
in the county. This was ten years before Texas became a state. He fought in the
Mexican War in 1846. A section of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in
1836 provided that all heads of families living in Texas at the time of the
Declaration of Independence (March 2, 1836) were entitled to one league and one
labor of land (4605.5 acres). Jesse Stiff claimed his one league and one labor
about seven miles northeast of McKinney. The creek going through his land was
called Stiff Creek.
A small community grew in this area called Stiff Chapel. In 1856 land was
donated for a school. Wallis Chapel Christian Church was on a hill nearby. This
cemetery is 2 acres surrounded by a 6-foot chain-link fence. The first grave in
the cemetery was for James Stiff, a Texas Ranger, who was a son of Jesse Stiff.
He came home sick and died on September 10, 1847. This makes the cemetery one of
the oldest ones in the county. The cemetery is in fairly good condition. The
western side of the cemetery is grass while the eastern side has heavy trees.
The fence could use a little work and the trees could be trimmed. The grass has
not been cut this year but it had been cut the previous year. Several of the
stones could be repaired. Some of the early stones came from the rock quarry
near Farmersville.
According to COLLIN COUNTY CEMETERY INSCRIPTIONS I, there are 100 graves here.
About � that amount are evident. There is a row of old stones for the Stiff
family that have been laid flat and set in concrete. The deed for the cemetery
is listed in Vol. 55, p 625.
The cemetery has
a historical marker.
Stiff Chapel Old Graveyard
Cemetery Working to be held
Saturday May 16, 1914.
Uncle Henry
Stiff was here today from his home at Stiff Chapel, seven miles northwest
[northeast] of McKinney, visiting at the home of his son-in-law, W. L.
Braswell on North Tennessee Street. As previously mentioned in these columns
those interested will meet to clean off the Stiff Chapel old graveyard
Saturday, May 16. Everyone is invited to take along his spade, hoe, rake and
axe and also your dinner basket. Uncle Henry Stiff will be 81 years old on
the 17th of next November. He came to that community in 1849. When he
settled there, only two graves were contained in the Stiff Chapel graveyard,
which is one of the oldest burying grounds in the county. A little child of
Jordan O. Straughan was the first to be buried in it. Jim Stiff, son of the
late Jesse Stiff, was the second to be buried there. Thus the Stiff Chapel
graveyard had its beginning prior to the year of 1849 more than 65 years
ago. Uncle Jesse Stiff donated the land for the graveyard. In its quiet
precincts sleeps the dust of many of our county's most honored and best
known early pioneers.
THE EXAMINER
March 15, 1917
Collin Pioneer Celebrates His Ninetieth Birthday
Pioneer Burying Ground.
The Stiff Chapel
graveyard is one of the oldest present burying grounds in the entire county. It
gets its name from Jess Stiff, who headrighted a large body of land on which the
cemetery is located. Jesse Stiff came to Collin county about 1834 or 1835. He
settled on the slight hill or prominence on which the cemetery is located. His
old pioneer log cabin, vacant and falling in ruins before the relentless tooth
of time still stands hard by--a mute reminder of the pioneer period of our
present thickly populated county.
The First Grave.
The first person to be buried in the Stiff Chapel graveyard was James Stiff, son
of Jesse Stiff and a Texas ranger who came home sick and died. In keeping with
the best tombstones that were available at that comparatively wild and
uncivilized period of our county's development, native stone slabs were hauled
from a quarry near where Farmersville now stands, and a crude sarcophagus was
erected over the grave and the following inscription chiseled on the flat slab
covering: "Sacred to the memory of James Stiff, son of Jesse and Mary Stiff.
Born Oct. 11, 1829. Died Sept, 10, 1847." Thus the first interment took place 70
years ago in the coming September.
MY NAME IS STIFF, p 44
Historical
marker, 1984.
STIFF CHAPEL
CEMETERY
(ONE-HALF MILE
SOUTH)
JESS STIFF
(1796-1871) CAME TO TEXAS
FROM VIRGINIA
IN 1835 AND SETTLED
ON SEVERAL
THOUSAND ACRES OF LAND
IN THIS AREA.
HIS BROTHER, LOUIS,
ARRIVED IN
1849, AND A COMMUNITY
KNOWN AS STIFF
CHAPEL DEVELOPED
AROUND THEIR
HOMESTEADS. IN 1847,
JESSE'S SON,
JAMES DIED WHILE
SERVING AS A
TEXAS RANGER. HE WAS
BURIED NEAR
HIS FATHER'S HOUSE ON
LAND THAT
LATER WAS DEEDED AS
THE STIFF
CHAPEL CEMETERY. MOST
OF THE GRAVES
IN THE TWO-ACRE
FAMILY BURIAL
GROUND DATE FROM
THE 1800s. THE
LAST BURIAL IN
THE STIFF
CHAPEL CEMETERY, THAT OF
MINNIE SWAIM,
TOOK PLACE IN 1935.
CEMETERY INDEX
Recommended
citation:
Stiff Chapel
Cemetery - SE of Melissa,
"CEMETERIES OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin
County, Texas History and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano
Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13, 2004 ].
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