BLACK CEMETERIES BLACK CEMETERIES
Rusk - Panola Area
The information on the burials in these Cemeteries have come Death Records that are located in the Panola Co. Courthouse and from the records of the local Funeral Homes by Barbara A. Bonner. As more information can be obtained, it will be added.
Here is our list of Black Cemeteries in the Rusk - Panola Area. The underlined ones have more information. If you know of others,
Let me know 
Gloria B. Mayfield
Bethel Cemetery, Beckville, TX
Bell Fountain Cemetery
Bennett Chapel Cemetery
Bethelhem Cem. Deadwood, TX
Booker Cemetery (Rusk Co. )
Breedville Cemetery (Rusk Co.)
Broadnax Cemetery
Canaan Cemetery #10 Shelby County
Centenniel Cemetery, DeBerry, TX
City Cemetery
Cross Road Cemetery
Deadwood Cemetery
Duright Cemetery
East Hamilton Cemetery #18 Shelby County
4-Mile Cemetery
Garrett Cemetery
Hall Cemetery (Minden)(3122&3175)
Harmony Hill near Tatum, TX
Hendricks near Tatum TX
Hickory Grove Cemetery (Rusk Co)
Holland Quarter Cemetery (Panola Co)
Jerusalem Cemetery, Fairplay, Texas
McAllister Cemetery
Methodist Cemetery
Mosiac Cemetery
Mt. Mirah Cemetery (Rusk Co)
Mt. Zion Cemetery
Myres Cemetery
New Liberty Cemetery (Rusk Co)
New Zion Cemetery
Nip & Tuck Cemetery
Oddfellow Cemetery
Old Bethel Cemetery , Clayton, TX
Old Campground Cemetery
Old Macedonia Church Cemetery (Panola Co.
Old Williams Cemetery
Paradise Cemetery (Panola Co.)
Pine Hill Cemetery
Plainview Cemetery (Rusk Co. Tx)
Pleasant Hill Cemetery
Pryor Hill Cemetery (Rusk Co. )
Pryor Cemetery
Rather Cemetery #13 Shelby County
Rockmore Cemetery
Shady Grove Cemetery, Gary, TX
Shady Grove Cemetery, Longbranch, TX
Shiloh Cemetery (Rusk Co.)
Social Point Cemetery
Tabernacle-Shiloh Cemetery (Beckville)
Trammel Cemetery, Tatum, TX
Union Murvaul Cemetery
Unknown
Walker Cemetery
Walnut Grove Cemetery
As family members died,they were laid out on a cooling board (flat piece of wood), in a separate room of their home. Family members and friends would gather (the wake) to pay their last respects.
The deceased would be laid on the cooling board for 12 or 16 hours, depending on the time of day he/she died. In the meantime a family member was busy making a pine box (coffin). If the family member died before daybreak, he/she could be buried late that evening. If the family member died late in the day, he/she would lie on the cooling board until the next day. The ceremony began by placing the pine box (coffin) in the back of a wagon, and family members and friends would walk behind the wagon to the nearby burying place. Sometimes this took place in a wooded area near the home of the deceased.
At times, there were markers made with the departed's name, and dates of birth and death scratched on it, or a cross (two sticks crossed and tied with rope or vine). During this time, lucky for us, some deaths were recorded in Family Bibles.
After 1903, rural communities still relied on the cooling board, and still did not record the death in the nearby county records office.
Milton Williams of Marshall, Texas, and Hawthorne of Carthage, Texas, were responsible for directing funerals for most of the rural Panola County area (African Americans) when death certificates were first recorded at the county courthouse.
On September 1, 1948, Gettis Black became a funeral director with Lewis, Coss, and Black's Funeral Home. On September 1, 1958, Gettis Black became owner and director of Black's Funeral.