In some of my seldom opened files, I found a nearly typed story on the Key Settlement. The story was type written by Deborah. When Deborah was still in middle school she learned "short hand." If there was a get together in family, church or city affairs, and Deborah was present in the group, she most often recorded the event in short hand and typed it later.

The story for this week is about an incidence that involved Hazel Shelton, a former City Secretary. When Hazel Shelton, came in with some of her historical collections, Deborah would record our conversations in short hand. It was a short-lived endeavor, because the copy machine and tape recorder became popular.

Hazel would come from across the street from the City Hall into the hardware store. On one occasion, she was happy to share with me some history that she and her daughter Betty had gathered.

The typewritten record of the meeting is as follows: "Bouncer, I have some valuable information that you don’t have. There is an old cemetery at the old Key Settlement," she continued, "after the town of Aubrey was laid out this was used as the Aubrey Cemetery." "It is in a grove of trees on a hill on land owned by Gary Francis. There are some monuments standing and some broken. We located 46 graves with sandstone markers or just sunken with no names."

The markers that she recorded are as follows:

Sacred to the Memory of Joseph H. Wilcox; born in Boone Co. Missouri on May 17, 1819; died in Denton Co. on or about December 12, 1862.

J.S. James born September 23, 1834, died 1878.

David James born August 18, 1809, died November 28, 1878.

B.S. Elrod born August 4, 1818, died December 6, 1893.

E. Wilson born February 24, 1814, died January 21, 1880.

W.A. Wilson born September 8, 1810, died October 27, 1878.

Christina, wife of S.N. Reynolds, born July 25, 1846, died February 25, 1888, age 41 years 7 months.

M.W. Hart.

J. Hart.

Auttman

M.S. Auttman.

Mary Alice, daughter of A.J. and C.R. Conway, born August 26, 1870, died July 17, 1871.

German, son of A.H. Conway, born _____ 10, 1860, died November 23, 1877.

Arbie, wife of W.D. Curbow, born July 1, 1883, died September 22, 1900.

L.L. James, died March 13, xx95.

Mrs. A.W. Graham, born Hartford, Conn., August 1, 1834, died Aubrey, Texas May 21, 1902.

Lucy C. Willis, born (broken through here), January xx, 1805, died December 26, 1893.

There were some broken concrete markers. There seems to have been two of these. From the places we picked out the words, of WM and C. _____ iley was born April28, 1875, died September 28, 1875.

The above was furnished by Hazel Shelton.

Another historical source was Texia Love, who was also very involved in collecting historical items. She shared many of her local heirlooms with me.

The Key Settlement was founded by Rev. Dr. George Key. Dr. Key moved his family and established the Key Settlement. According to Texia Love’s history of the Methodist Church, the Key family settled here in 1843. They had previously settled in the Weston Community which is due east of Aubrey about 25 miles. The Cross Timbers were obvious to see from the settlement of Weston which is about 5 or so miles east of Celina.

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