Bethesda, Parker County
Settlers in the 1860s called this area Dry Creek but renamed it Bethesda Community in 1876 after they built a schoolhouse used for Methodist worship. John G. Leach (1846-1930) and John Marshall Coalson (1826-1897) gave land near the school for a cemetery in 1877 when Leach's daughter Minnie E. (1872-1961) seemed near death with diphtheria. She recovered and the earliest marked grave is that of Charlie A. Walker (1879-1880). Childhood mortality accounts for many graves in the older part of the cemetery. Descendants of pioneer families donated land in 1973 to enlarge the site to five acres. (1978)