Shipps
Mill Cemetery
Shipps Mill Cemetery,
late 1800's,"This cemetery is located in the northwest quadrant
of Red River County, Texas. GPS COORDINATES: Datum WGS84: 33
Deg 44.551N, 95 Deg 12.274W. This cemetery dates from the late
1800's and was created on the Knight's Ranch land. In time there
was a large lumber mill established in the area to the north
and west of the cemetery. In reading all the extant newspapers
during the time that Shipps Mill was in operation, there was
not a single article that specified burial in this cemetery,
all such deaths being noted as burial in Blanton Creek Cemetery.
At the time of it's creation it was just east of the road from
Midway Community to the Manchester Community and was just to
the north of Dinwiddie Bayou. With the closing of the mill and
the changing of the road to the present location, the cemetery
is now cut off from any country road. There is no easy way to
reach the old cemetery. Possibly the best way to go to the area
now is to go north of Bagwell on the current Bagwell to Manchester
road to the crossing of Dinwiddie Bayou, find a place to pull
off the road and then head west along the bayou until you reach
the old washed out trace that was the Midway to Manchester road.
It is suggested that you invest in a GPS device and then, using
it, retrace to the coordinates given earlier.
This is not a Sunday afternoon excursion and is not for someone
wanting a short pleasant walk in the woods. This is an extremely
primitive area. It is badly overgrown and is full of mosquitos
and snakes. All that remains of the old burying ground at this
time, 29 Sep 2003, is a single stone marker as the old wooden
stobs have long since been burned or rotted. On the above date,
we were guided to the area by Delma Gibbs and his sister, Venita
Jo Gibbs Oldfield Morris. We remained on the sight for a short
hour filming and taking pictures and locating the old fence corners
of the cemetery. From what was found the cemetery is about 20
feet by 60 feet in size and possibly contains about 10 to 15
graves. About half of the site has been used as a bull dozer
dump area and as such is over filled to a depth of about 24 to
30 inches with topsoil. We were able to locate three of the four
corners of the cemetery and possibly with more time the last
of them could be found. Remember, this is on International Paper
Company land and is to be entered only with their permission.
There has not been a set aside found in the County Clerk's office
for this cemetery."
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