ORANGE, Texas — The Heritage House Museum of Orange kicked off their annual cemetery walk Sunday afternoon, but this year they decided they needed a change of scenery, and the old Jett Cemetery seemed like the perfect fit.
"This is something we’ve done for a couple years now but we’ve mainly focused on the Evergreen cemetery, but we wanted to branch out and do something new and different," said Kimberly Manning, Secretary on the Board of Directors for Heritage House Museum of Orange.
Manning says that while Jett Cemetery is often overlooked by passers-by off Park Avenue in Orange, it is filled with a rich history.
"It has so much history in it, I feel like it has even more history than Evergreen. There are so many interesting stories here," said Manning.
On first glance Jett Cemetery can indeed be easy to miss, a simple chain link fence and a small sign announce its presence amongst a forest that threatens to swallow it completely.
Jody Chesson, Treasurer on the Board of Directors for Heritage House Museum of Orange, says that nature has already began to claim many of the older plots in the cemetery.
"Anywhere there's a clump of trees, there's gonna be plots in there," said Chesson.
Manning said that the only people who are charged with the upkeep of the property are the families of those who reside there, and with a cemetery as old as Jett, those numbers are dwindling.
"There is not an association over it, a lot of cemeteries in town have associations for the perpetual care, but this one doesn’t have that," said Manning, "The only people that take care of this place are the family members, so the graves in the back that are over 100 years old, there’s no on to take care of them."
Kimberly Manning hopes that the attention the walk brings, will get families much needed help on the upkeep of the cemetery.
“We felt like if we did something here maybe that would bring more attention too it, so the family members here have some help to start cleaning it up," said Manning.
However, underneath the climbing vines and brambles lie an interesting history of a bygone era many have sadly forgotten.
The over 100-year-old graves tell tales of tragedy like the Jett family massacre with it's victims now resting on the cemetery grounds, and tales of heroism in the soldiers graves who fought in the Texas Revolution.
Manning and Chesson says that several people have already taken renewed interest in helping with the upkeep of the historic cemetery, hopefully one day Jett Cemetery can return to its former state, and once forgotten stories will again be told.