Sign of the Times

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

One of the most historic sites in Mansfield got a little bit more historic this week.

The Mansfield Cemetery installed an iron arch with its name and the year of its founding, 1868, over the entrance leading into the west side of the cemetery.

“It’s reflective of the history of the cemetery,” said Mansfield native Raymond Meeks, 77, whose parents and grandparents are buried in the historic cemetery. “When I was growing up, there was a similar sign.”

The cemetery, 750 W. Kimball St., spreads across 11 acres, including the oldest part, the Cumberland Section, where city co-founder Ralph Man is buried. Man donated the original land for the cemetery to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

The Mansfield Cemetery Association has been working on enclosing the cemetery with a black wrought-iron fence, putting up the fence in sections in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The new black iron arch and sign will match the iron fence. The fence also matches the fencing around the adjacent Mansfield Community Cemetery, formerly called the Mansfield Colored Cemetery, which is managed by Bethlehem Baptist Church.

“There was an old sign (at the entrance to the Mansfield Cemetery), I’m sure it fell apart, with a metal arch like this,” said Paula McKay, president of the Mansfield Cemetery Association.

A large concrete sign was added in 1989, donated by former Mansfield Mayor Tommy Watson, who is also buried in the cemetery. The concrete sign, which is now leaning, will be removed, McKay said, because it doesn’t match the historic era of the cemetery.

The new sign cost $4,500 and was paid for by donations to the cemetery association, she said. The group is hoping to put a similar sign on the entrance to the east side of the cemetery, McKay said.

The association has applied for a Historic Texas Cemetery Designation, and hopes that it will be granted by the end of the year, Meeks said. The group will then apply for a Texas historical marker, he said.