Carmel Cemetery

Carmel Cemetery. . , Georgia native Dr. Zachariah Ellison (1804-1863) and his wife, Emily (1812- 1879), came to Texas in the 1830s, eventually acquiring 2,500 acres in northwest Smith County. James K. Beene settled nearby and established the Flora community and post office in the 1840s along the Dallas-Shreveport Road. The Ellisons had several daughters and welcomed a son, Alfred, in Sep. 1848, but he died two months later. His burial was the first in what would become Carmel Cemetery. Another infant son, Willie, was buried here in Feb. 1853. The Ellisons donated the surrounding property for a community burial ground serving Flora and the surrounding area., Carmel Baptist Church organized in a vacant house on May 6, 1853, with charter members Pastor John Bledsoe, Mary Bledsoe, Serena Bledsoe, Deacon Milton Carter, Leah Niblack and John Niblack. The church eventually met next to the cemetery. There were many nearby large farms, plantations, and grain mills, and records indicate that prior to the Civil War, free and slave worshiped together at the church. Many of these early families and their descendants are buried in the cemetery. Richard B. Hubbard, who became governor of Texas in 1876, was an early church member., The Flora Community declined after the Civil War and the 1870s rise of railroad towns like Lindale. The cemetery continued to serve local families. The oldest part of the cemetery is in the northwest section, where the Ellison family plot is located. Marble, granite, concrete and iron ore grave markers are prominent. Notable gravestones include those for Masons, Shriners, Woodmen of the World, and military veterans spanning generations. The Carmel Cemetery association formed in 1947 to maintain and preserve. this precious record of area history. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark .