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The Pierce
Cemetery in Goatneck is in great danger of being washed into the Brazos River!!
Please help by calling or writing the Johnson County Judge, and the Johnson County
Commissioner for Precinct #1.
Johnson County Judge
Roger Harmon 817-556-6360 Johnson County
Commissioners Precinct #1
Tom Hazelwood- Mayor of
Cleburne is our cousin. 817-641-5122
Doris Lanfear
817-641-1671
Larry Dyer owns the
property where the cemetery is located>
Pierce Cemetery Located at GoatNeck on the Brazos Johnson County TX (Cleburne) Located at GoatNeck not far from Goatneck community center on private property owned by Dyer but Deeded to Pierce Heirs. Surveyed June 1996 and 1999 by LD Pierce, Dallas TX. Write or email for directions to this cemetery. Andrew Jackson Pierce (born 1815 Lumpkin GA) and his wife Nancy Emaline Abercromnbie (Pierce) are buried in the Pierce family in the Cemetery north of the old Pierce log cabin (torn down in 1996). This part of the Old Pierce ranch with the Cemetery is now owned by Dyer but deeded to pierce heirs. The Cemetery is approximately one acre. There is one very large tombstone marking AJ’s and Nancy’s graves. There is one other cement tombstone listing Jessie Pierce (Clem Pierce and Mollie Gordon’s daughter) plus several flat native stone head and foot markers. They are buried edgeways with no identification. The cemetery used to be completely fenced with Cast Iron, but it has been torn down. The cemetery was almost completely covered by overgrowth in 1996 but Lester Jones, 2nd eldest of the Andrew Jackson Pierce descendents, paid to have most of the growth cut down. A gravel company excavated a large hold in search of gravel within 15 feet of the graves and left the hole open. The company went bankrupt and the hole is still there. Floods have washed even closer to the Cemetery, and needs to be filled in or the entire Cemetery will wash out soon. There is only one large rock tombstone in this Cemetery, which contains about 20 graves. Viola Block noted historian of Johnson County TX states that many of AJ’s and and Nancy’s Negro slaves (freed) are also buried in the cemetery. Andrew Jackson Pierce moved to Texas in 1866 some twenty miles from Waco, and moved to Johnson County in 1869. He died in 1892Journal July 7, 1999. I went back out to Goatneck and took the photos below of Andrew and Nancy Pierce's tombstone. Jessie Pierces tombstone has been broken in half for many years and is located on the C.A. Pierce page. I Did get a good photograph of it. Below are the photos of the Pierce tombstone and the cemetery area. In the photo directly below if you notice directly to the left of the large tombstone about 5-6 ft is a smaller stone. There are two of these. The one that is visible is Nancy Pierce's. There is another for AJ about 4 ft to the left of hers. I did not get a good photo of his secondary stone. I was able to verify Nancy's death date as April 28, 1878. AJ's death date remains May 20, 1892. The side of the stone on which AJ's inscription is placed, is very light, and I was unable to get a photo of it. I am going to take a non permanent black magic marker to fill in the cuts next time I am out there( to get a photograph of the inscription). Also soon I am also going to make "rubbings" of the inscriptions using charcoal. Lester Jones, one of the eldest of the Pierce family, remembers that in the 1960's there were 20 or so flat stones. These are currently piled around a the base of a tree nearby. The large hole has not washed any closer to the cemetery and graves. I feel that the next big flood in the region will wash out to the point where I was standing, when I took the photo below---or even closer. Unfortunately the big hole, and wash area is now filled with unsightly trash and rubbish. Directions:
The basic directions to get out there from Cleburne are this:
July 21, 1999: Spoke with Doris Lanfears of the Johnson County Cemetery Association. She went out to GoatNeck and survey the Pierce Cemetery with the County Comissioner. They have determined that the cemetery is not in a flood area, and should not wash out any more. That is a relief. She has also begun preparations to get rid of all the brush in the cemetery area. In the fall or winter of 1999 she has plans to get the cemetery complete marked off and fenced. I am planning to go with her to the cemetery in the fall, and she will bring equipment to locate graves, get them counted, ect. We also hope to find more buried headstones, ect. I sent her three copies of my book. One for herself, and she is donated one to the Alverado and Johnson County Libraries.
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