Hollie Tatnell's Grave in the Middle of the Road

The place where Wheelock Street in Hearne, Texas exists was actually once a slave burying ground; once slavery was abolished, it evolved into the town's African American cemetery. One of the last to be laid to rest here was Hollie Tatnell, who was born a slave and died a free woman in 1911-- the graveyard was closed shortly after, in 1912. All remained well until 1947, when real estate developers purchased up the land in the area, including the spot where the cemetery stood. The black families were forced out, and the bodies in the cemetery had to be exhumed and reinterred elsewhere.  Hollie Tatnell's children, Georgia and Andrew, refused to budge-- they wanted to leave their mother where she was laid to rest, near where she grew up. Eventually, the developers just decided to build a median around her grave so they could continue building the road. Andrew and Georgia marked their victory with another plaque next to Hollie's original headstone, and in 2007, another marker was added to Hollie's grave, this one from the Texas Historical Commission, declaring the lone grave a Historic Texas Cemetery. It reads: "This single grave serves as a reminder of the area's early African-American community and of the sanctity of burial grounds." -Roadtrippers