The major African-American cemetery for the city of Mt. Pleasant has ultimately been called the Cortznes Cemetery.  Prior to this accepted name, the common usage had been each of the names in the title above plus Reed Cemetery.  This confusion of names resulted from the fact that the cemetery is essentially composed of 5 separate cemeteries.  A complete description of these deeded cemeteries can be found in Lynch Harper’s “Cemeteries of Titus County”.  Since, to the casual observer, the cemeteries are indistinguishable, this study treats them as a single entity.  When the cortznessheppardsearcyoldwestcity Cemetery (which was used for burials of all races) became unmanageable, the Masonic Cemetery was established for the burial of “white people only”, the Old West City cemetery became the prime burial site for others.

A large quantity of anomalous burial markers were encountered during the conduct of this survey and some are described below.  However, there were such a large quantity of rocks, bricks, pieces of concrete and marble scattered throughout that a meaningful qualification and quantification was impossible.  Additionally, there are numerous depressions that normally would indicate a possible grave subsidence but they would be difficult to differentiate from the irregular terrain.  The following are the significant observations: there were 18 funeral home markers (FHM) that were unreadable; only flowers marked 11 sites; a marble slab was lying flat; a concrete slab had only “5-22-1931", a concrete block; a ring of concrete building blocks around a tree stump and an unreadable FHM; a piece of granite marker that had “Larty” inscribed; a buried marble slab; a block consisting of mortared brick; a large granite marker lying face down; a FHM that had “1891-1967" only; a large concrete slab; a marker that has “Sister” only; a concrete slab that has “Feb. 15, 1879 - Dec. 30, 1954 Age 75 - 3 Mo” only; a heart shaped concrete block that has “Love Always” inscribed; a marker whose face is resting against a tree and therefore unreadable;  a flat slab that has missing letters but has “UTEN  D-SS August 5, 1984" remaining; and a new grave with no identifying information.

To reach the Cortznes Cemetery from the Titus County court house take West 1st street west for 0.5 mile to the intersection with West Ferguson (US 271).  Proceed straight through the intersection (the street name will be O’Tyson or Farm Road 127).  Proceed another 0.4 mile to the intersection from the right of the entrance to the Cortznes Cemetery.  A large wooden sign currently announces the cemetery.   Coordinates: 33^o 09.178' 094^o 58.775'.