The Melissa Historical Society plans two chances this week to learn about St. Paul Cemetery, a historic burial ground, and the people buried there.
The main event is a guided walking tour from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 10. According to the City of Melissa's events calendar, the group will meet at Melissa Cemetery, 422 E. Melissa Road, and participants are asked to park along the road.
The calendar listing says the tour will tell the stories of people buried there and what they meant to the early community.
For anyone who cannot handle uneven ground, has a schedule conflict or would rather stay indoors, the society is presenting the same material as a PowerPoint program on Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 3411 Barker Ave. The library, which lists both programs, says people are welcome to attend either one or both.
Two cemeteries, one family
The two graveyards sit side by side, and their histories are tied to the same pioneer family. The Texas Historical Commission marker at Melissa Cemetery, erected in 1989, says the earliest burials there are those of William M. Sherley (1856), Lewis Sherley (1867) and Albert Shirley (1879).
The marker says the three may originally have been laid to rest on Lewis Sherley's farm nearby and moved when Melissa Cemetery was formally set up in 1889.
Enslaved people held by the family were also buried in that original Sherley family plot, the marker states, and that site became what is now St. Paul Cemetery.
A separate 1978 state marker for St. Paul Baptist Church describes the congregation as one of the oldest Black congregations in Collin County. It says the Rev.
