Published: June 09, 2009 08:57 pm      

Black Hills Cemetery Association cookbook now available

The Black Hills Cemetery Association currently has cookbooks for sale at $20. Over 300 recipes were collected from several generations of cooks that have ties with Black Hills. The cookbook also has a brief history of the once-bustling community of Black Hills, located between Barry, Emhouse and Corsicana. There once was a cotton gin, church, and a school located there.

There is a rich history told by those that once lived or grew up in that area — stories that bring back another era in time. Ladies dressed in their best dress and hat with veils that covered their face and they fanned themselves with the funeral parlor fans. The men dressed in their three-piece suits and straw hats for church, even though it was a hot Texas day outside. The community was so small that the Baptists used the church building on the first and third Sundays and the Methodists would use the church building on the second and fourth Sundays. On the odd fifth Sunday of any given month, there would be no church, just Sunday school.

The area is called Black Hills because it’s surrounded with the black, gumbo clay that sticks to your feet when the soil is wet from rain, and is so thick that it will collect on your shoes as you walk through it — so thick that it’ll pull your shoes off as you walk. Thus the name — Black Hills.

Some of the “historians” have told their stories to their families and they have shared the stories in this publication.

Old photos of the church, school house and the cemetery are in the book, and the dividers have old photos of the families that have kept the Black Hills Cemetery Association alive all these years. The group meets once a year for a short business meeting.

This year, the meeting will be held July 11 at Watkins Trophy Room, and the public is welcome to attend. The association will sell a light supper, homemade dessert and drink. Cost will be $6 for adults and $3 for children 8 and under. There will be a Christian comedy program that will start at 5 p.m. with supper following. The association members will bring homemade cakes, cookies, canned goods, arts and crafts that will be sold. There will also be a quilt raffle with tickets at $1 each.

Proceeds will go directly for the mowing and upkeep of the Black Hills Cemetery.

Locations that have the Black Hills Cemetery Association cookbook are: T & Company, P&S Pharmacy, The Hair Bender Beauty Shop, Corsicana Visitor Center, Corsicana/Navarro County Chamber of Commerce. Or you can call (903) 654-3369, (903) 875-4915 or (903) 872-5987 for more information.

— From Staff Reports