Cemetery Gates : Missing Portal to Eternity

Chambersville

A fact about cemeteries is they are sacred. any desecration is an affront to the family of the deceased past or present. Something not so long ago got me to thinking about the gates  on small family plots in the cemeteries around me, in rural central Texas. They are no longer there, I do not recall seeing them in my lifetime. Cemeteries that would have had gates on the small family plots are , Chambersville, Franklin, Mugg. Just the other day me and my grandfather and grandmother were riding past Franklin cemetery on the way to McKinney Texas. I thought to ask him about the gate to the family plot in Franklin cemetery, which if you have ever passed the cemetery on FM 543 is the central feature of the small roadside cemetery. The Franklin family is buried inside the ornate fence. My grandfather said he can remember the gate being there back some forty years before, maybe fifty years . The Horrible thing is stealing is wrong, but stealing from a CEMETERY is an unspeakable desecration, as far back as I can remember the other two cemeteries had no gates on the plots. Mugg has two family plots but after looking through my pictures I had no clear pictures of the second one without its gate. from what I have gathered over the years about stealing of iron and other precious metals from cemeteries, its a quick money maker, a very wrong way to make money in my opinion, a very quick way to get haunted and a wraith to follow you around until you give it back to its rightful owner.

                            
      In my lifetime the Franklin cemetery arch was stolen, I remember it being gone , even though I was younger, under the age of ten I remember how saddened I was. The arch I am talking about is just a free standing arch that stands at an angle in the front of the cemetery, right as you enter its adjacent to the corn field and a couple of trees. its not one you drive through. Franklin cemetery is unfenced, except for the family plot that resides in the middle.

 Other cemetery cemeteries I have been to such as Preston Bend cemetery  near Lake Texoma still have the gates on family plots , One of the most ornate and beautiful is that of the Porter Family plot. It is pictured below.

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