The Story of the Holly Tree
"Oral tradition, heard many times but repeated to Melba Schochler in 1986 by Hensley Gaines and
used in her presentation "Concord Homecoming - 1986" provides the following interesting story about the holly tree planted
in the middle of the cemetery. "Some people came through the area on their way further west. Among these were
a young couple who planned to be married. While camped here, the young girl became ill and died. The heartbroken
young man buried his sweetheart in her wedding dress and, for a tombstone, planted a holly tree at her head."
Marcellus Parrish, in 1997, requested the Texas Forestry Service to verify if the holly tree
might qualify as Texas largest holly tree. They measured the tree and although it did not qualify as Texas largest,
it does measure 60' tall with a crown spread of 57' and a stem of 110" in circumference. ------Vera Ward Green remembers,
when as a student at school on the hill, they would go down to the cemetery to gather holly to decorate the school at Christmas
time." Taken from the book "Blest Be The Tie That Binds" A History of Concord Community, Church and Cemetery p.
13-14
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"Marcellus Parrish of the Concord Cemetery Association first had the tree measured by the TFS
in 1997
"It wasn't the largest at the time,"he said, noting that a tree down south was the champion.
"We went to see it later on and lightening had struck it and it was no longer there.
In 1998 Parrish contacted the Texas Forest Service and it was never checked on. Finally,
he contacted TFS District Forester Terrance B. Nied in August of this year asking him to come measure the tree again.
"As I began taking measurements, I noticed that a large number of tombstones were inscribed with
the Funderburk name," Nied said, noting that he even set a piece of his equipment down on one of these tombstones.
His wife, Dolores "Lorie" Ramsey Nied has ancestors that were named Funderburk. Her mother
was Mildred Funderburk Ramsey.
After measuring the tree, Nied visited with Parrish's wife, Elda Parrish, granddaughter of William
Fitzgerald, donor of the Concord Church and Cemetery site. This is an error by the newspaper.
I mentioned that my mother-in-law was a Funderburk. Mrs. Parrish became excited, and she
gave me a history book of the Concord Community. She mentioned that most of the Funderburks came from the Carolinas
through Union Parish, La." he said. "This matched the history of Lorie's ancestors."
Nied remembered that in 1981 when he and his wife moved to Arkansas from the Rusk area, that
his mother-in-law gave the couple a family history book and found that many of the Funderburks were buried in Ward's Chapel
Cemetery near Farmerville, La.
We have not looked at this history book since that time. I faintly remembered a reference
to the Concord Cemetery in the old history book. Could this be the same cemetery?'Nied recalled.
That night, Nied went home and he and his wife searched the house for her family history book.
As they began to read the family history, they discovered that the Funderburk family was indeed a very large part of the Concord
Community. The Concord Church ordained two pastors and one deacon in his wife's family.
Imagine my surprise and amazement when I came to page 36 were the oral tradition in 'A History
of Concord Community, Church & Cemetery' provided to me by Mrs. Parrish, generally verified by documentation
in Lorie's family history book," Nied said.
The family history book tells of Fannie Funderburk being engaged to marry a young man who died
the winter before she did. She put out a holly tree at his feet, which was still growing about eight feet in circumference
at the ground in the cemetery according to the book on July 4, 1949 In 'A History of Concord Community,
Church & Cemetery' the legend is reversed with the lady dying and being buried in her wedding dress.
If the documentation in Lorie's family history books is correct, the holly tree was planted in
1874, the year before Fannie Funderburk died. The eight feet in circumference at the ground line that was referenced
in Lorie's book certainly is plausible with the 111.7 inch circumference at breast height on Aug. 11, 2000," Nied said.
Mrs. Parrish, who with her sisters Melba Schochler and Estelle Mahan, great-granddaughters of
William A. Fitzgerald, researched the history of the Concord Community, Church and Cemetery to form the historical information
while in the process of getting a Texas Historical Marker which was dedicated on Oct. 11, 1997.
In 'A History of Concord Community, Church & Cemetery' the three women discuss
how they included documented history of the community, church and cemetery as well as some oral history, which included the
story of the holly tree, which was taken from a Concord homecoming presentation in 1986.
"It couldn't be documented; but we thought it to be interesting additions to our narration,"
Mrs. Parrish said.
She now believes, as does Nied, that the oral history had changed through the years and the historical
information provided in the Funderburk family history book contains the correct version of the holly tree story.
"This championship tree was chosen as an enduring memorial to an unknown man planted by a loving
fiancee, and the tree still endures," Nied said. "The old holly tree, through some bizarre twists and turns, has united
my wife with relatives that she did not even know existed. The chances of this happening are so phenomenal. I
was just going about my business."
His wife, of course, was very surprised with the new information.
"I was very surprised, and I'm sure my family will be too," she said. "I think my mother
would have been happy that I went back and found some roots."
"It's so amazing that we moved back to this area from Arkansas, and here my ancestors are in
this cemetery," she continued.
Mrs. Parrish calls the connection between the measuring the champion holly tree and the community's
history divine providence.
"If this had been checked on in 1998, we might have never come upon documentation of what may
be the true story of the holly tree," she said."
Taken from an article in the Palestine Herald-Press, Sunday, October 1, 2000
