McKenzie Cemetery

To reach the McKenzie Cemetery, one must travel south from Groesbeck on FM 937 for 15 3/10 miles and turn onto LCR 740 going passed Running Branch Marina. It is about 3 1/10 miles to LCR 742 where the cemetery sign is posted at the turn.

A large MCKENZIE sign was placed over the gate in 1994, the work donated by the Leon County Shop Students, Ronald Stone, and J. W. Shields. Nola McKenzie Shields' final project was to have all the gravesites marked with concrete markers. This
was completed before her death in 1968. Oletha School Teacher, Sibyle Shields, recorded the story which was the oral history of the beginning of the cemetery in 1963 as handed down from her great grandparents which is printed in the 1988 Edition of the
Limestone County Cemetery Survey.

The TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL MARKER was placed in the cemetery in June of 1995, a donation by Preston Shields.
Application made by Beth Shields Wilson.
The marker reads:

McKENZIE CEMETERY

THE AREA SURROUNDING THIS GRAVE YARD WAS KNOWN AS McKENZIE PRAIRIE, NAMED FOR JOSEPH S. McKENZIE AND HIS FAMILY WHO SETTLED HERE IN 1853. THE OLDEST GRAVE HERE IS THAT OF ELIZABETH ETEMON AND HER INFANT DAUGHTER WHO DIED WHILE TRAVELING THROUGH THE AREA IN 1865. THE McKENZIES SET ASIDE
LAND FOR THE BURIAL. IT WAS MARKED WITH SANDSTONE CARVED BY ELIZABETH'S HUSBAND WHO THEN LEFT AND CONTINUED HIS JOURNEY. GRADUALLY THE ONE-ACRE PLOT BECAME A COMMUNITY BURIAL GROUND, THE FINAL RESTING-PLACE FOR THE McKENZIE FAMILY, THEIR NEIGHBORS, AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. (1995)

This survey was done by Preston Shields and Aaron Shields in the Spring of 1989 to correct mistakes found in the Limestone County Cemetery Survey Book. The addition of those buried after 1989 was added in 1999 by Beth Shields Wilson. A very large marker was placed in the cemetery by descendants which reads
William J. Choate 1833/1900 Co C 17 Regt TEX Cav CSA.