The Old Cemetery, The Shrine of Palestine *************************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Scott Fitzgerald – scottfitzgerald@tyler.net East Texas Genealogical Society, President June 8, 2005 *************************************************************************** Originally published in The Tracings, Volume 2, No. 2, Fall 1983, Pages 94- 97 by the Anderson County Genealogical Society, copyright assigned to the East Texas Genealogical Society. THE OLD CEMETERY, THE SHRINE OF PALESTINE by Mary Kate Hunter There is nothing in Palestine that has the same interest as the Old cemetery. In it the pioneers sleep--personalities that have made history here and elsewhere and the tale of all their hardships and achievements lies buried with them. Their quiet resting place is in strange contrast to the heroic lives they must have lived to transform a wilderness, inhabited by Indiand [sic] and wild beasts, into a safe and happy homeland for their children, and children's children. There is nothing on record about the plot of ground of the cemetery, but it must have been set aside, along with the sites for the Courthouse and jail, when the one hundred acres for the townsite was bought in 1846. The cemetery was well filled at the time of the opening of the Civil War, in 1861. There were no lots sold in those days. People selected a spot and buried their dead without the ceremony of city permits. They planted trees and flowers and kept their own family graves, and not until 1875, during the administration of Mayor S. N. Pickens, and there a city ordinance creating the office of city sexton and directing that a record be kept of burials. W. H. Bowen was the first city sexton. The early settlers brought native rock and built walls and mounds which stand today, and these very old rock mounds and walls give the cemetery an historic interest. A world-travelled [sic] English lady remarked that the cairns (mounds) were the most interesting things in our country--priceless historically. Some of the graves were built with iron fences around the rock walls, others with a wood paling fence around the grave and a roof overhead, and many lie unmarked and but for information given by relatives, would not be numbered in this article, which only aims at giving the names of the heads of families who were the original pioneers--a few outstanding exceptions. All the pioneers are not buried in the Old cemetery. Some few have beep laid to rest in East Hill cemetery, notably Judge John H. Reagan. Others who lived out of town were buried either in their family burying grounds or old neighborhood graveyards with which the county is dotted. At the northeast corner of the cemetery are buried a dozen or more unknown Confederate veterans. During the Civil War, a regiment of soldiers which camped at Gum Springs, near the cemetery, was detained on account of an epidemic of sickness among the soldiers, many of wham died and were buried here. A wooden marker was placed at each grave. South of the old fence, adjoining it at the east corner, was used as a burying ground for negro slaves. Not a great many were buried there. The first person to be buried in the Old cemetery was a man who had been tried for murder and sentenced to be hanged, but died in jail and thus escaped the handman's [sic] noose. The following list of names of pioneers buried in the Old cemetery is not complete. There are unmarked graves about which there can be nothing learned, and some of the tombstones are so worn and defaced that the inscriptions can not be deciphered. On May 1, last Decoration day, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, local chapter, attempted to decorate the graves of the pioneers. The cemetery was so overgrown with grass and weeds that they could get to the graves only with great difficulty. Today it has been put in order, and is a beautiful spot. The shade trees are its charm--cedars nearly a hundred years old, planted by early citizens, and crepe myrtle, both the earmarks pf the Old South with an occasional elm and walnut, some growing out of thoes [sic] native rock mounds. Those buried in the Old cemetery who were born in the 18th century: Drusilla McMeans, 1788; John Calhoun, 1788; Dorothy Lacy, 1789; Nancy Calhoun, 1791; David D. C. Hunter, 1794; Elizabeth Garner, 1789. Those buried in the Old cemetery who were born during the first ten years of the 19th century: Phalbey Tully, 1801; James H. McKnight, 1801; wife of John N. Ransom, 1803; Martha M. King, 1804; Achsah Hunter, 1805; Colonel Thomas J. Word, 1805; Thomas E. Suggs, 1808; O. W. Duke, 18O9; Fred S. Jackson, 1809; Rev. Edward R. Burton, 1809. Pioneers and heads of families who came to Anderson County in the early '50s or earlier: John F. Taylor and wife, Rebecca, Walker Bush Taylor; N. G. Gunnels, Confederate soldier; Dr. N. B. Yelverton; O. W. Browning; Robert O. Ballam; Jacob Christ; Mrs. S. A. Quarles, sister of Colonel A. T. Rainey; Wiley F. Bowen and wife; Dr. F. C. G. Williams; P. J. Simonds, who ran the first book store in Palestine, and who gave the land on which the Junior High School building now stands, together with Judge R. A. Reeves; the wife of E. N. Graves; John T. Small; Mrs. L. G. (Aunt Bee) Small; Martha A. Martin (Mrs. Ozment's mother); Rev. Jacob Crawford and wife, Margery (wholie under the shade of a cedar tree. Many there are who lie near him for whom Rev. Crawford preformed the marriage ceremony, for preachers were scarce in the early days); Dr. T. N. Rhodes and wife; Dr. E. J. DeBard and wife, Julia McCray DeBard (Dr. DeBard gave ground for the first Presbyterian church that was built in Palestine, and also gave the ground for the manse. The DeBard addition to Palestine extended over the entire western part of the city.) Richard Small, who was born in old Fort Houston, and his wife, Mary Rhodes Small, W. M. M. Fowler; Thomas Jefferson Harris and wife, Mary An Word; John T. Kennedy, Annie E. Kennedy, Samuel Earl Cravens; Judge John Cravens and wife, Mary; John Perry and wife, Matilda Cravens Perry; Judge John G. Gooch, who organized the first Sunday school and the first public library in Palestine, and his wife, Elizabeth Cravens Gooch; Joseph T. Calhoun; A. Q. Nicks; Dr. H. H. Link, who practiced medicine in old Fort Houston; and his wife, Hypatia; William M. Micheaux, for whom the Michaux addition is named, and his wife Narcissa. Arabella Jeanette Petitt; Sarah Jane Petitt; Judge William Alexander and wife, Susan S. Alexander; John B. Mallard; Thomas H. Ricks and wife, Roberta Ricks; Amirald Ricks; Alexina Ricks McMeans; James L. McMeans, one of the founders of the Christian church in Palestine; Louis Bowden; Drisilla McMeans Bowden; Henry Petty; the Long family; Captain Thomas J. Johnson and wife, U. C. V.; Henry Davis and wife, Mary Eliza; Judge A. E. McClure, who lived in old Fort Houston and who was the second owner of the Trinity Advocate, and his wife, Anne Glenn McClure; Marshall Glenn, captain of the first company to leave Palestine for the Civil War; Ellen E. Douglas Jackson, wife of Fred Jackson; W. Y. Lacy and wife, Ann Eliza Lacy; Dorothy Lacy, wife of Martin Lacy, whose home was in Cherokee county at old Fort Lacy; Martha Lacy Dawson; Dr. J. D. Rankin; Margaret A. Rankin; Turner Parker, who built the first church in Palestine--a Methodist church--and who was one of its founders, and wife, Louisa; J. M. Swanson and his wife, Celia; Colonel H. C. Swanson, early merchant of Palestine, and his wife, Mary E. Micheaux Swanson; R. J. Royall and wife, Dollie Graves Royall; Edward Davis and wife, Pammie F. Davis; John J. McBride; Thomas W. Butler. Judge W. G. W. Jowers, physician, legislator, state senator, and county judge, his wife, Bettie Lamon Jowers, and also his second wife, Paulina Catherine Tatum Beeson Jowers; one of the founders of the Presbyterian church in Palestine, Rev. James B. Woodard, and his wife, Talitha; Rufus M. Watts and Rhoda, his wife; D. H. Harrell; M. M. Wylie, wife of William Wylie; John Murchison, early merchant who had a tomb of Italian marble built over the grave of his wife, Pauline H. Murchison, who died in 1858, which is in good condition today; Martin Murchison; Martha Murchison; Bettie B. Ricks; D. C. McMeans; Josiah Camps' wife, Louisa; Dr. J. H. Rankin; Dr. W. S. H. Kirksey; N. P. Mead; Mary Lucretia Jackson Word; Eli Bailey, Palestine's first postmaster; C. L. Price, for whom Price's Mountain was named, and his wife, E. A. Price; Winnette DeGrasse; Cynthia A. Duke; wife of W. DeGrasse; Augustus H. Martin; Alexander Joost, Palestine's first merchant and one-time resident of Port Houston, and his wife, Nancy Lee Joost, and his second wife, Jane Fuller; one of the first school teachers in Palestine, Florence Elleu, first daughter of Judge R. A. Reeves and Mrs. Reeves; Susan, daughter of C. G. and Mary N. Reeves; the father and mother of Dr. Graham, one-time citizen of Palestine, later of Austin; W. J. Moore and wife, Sarah E. Moore; Colonel G. R. Howard, one of the early merchants of Palestine, and his wife, Cornelia Cox Howard; Judge James Perry, for whom Perry street was named; Ira Green and his wife, Georgie Martin Green; Charles Mills, brother to Roger Q. Mills, and wife; Emsley Garner and wife, Millie M. Garner. Henry Davis, long-time sheriff of Anderson county, and his wife, Mary Eliza Davis, and others, whose graves are unmarked. Obligation for aid in preparing this article is acknowledged to; Mrs. N. W. Hunter, Mrs. Sammie DeBard Phillips, Miss Fannie Gooch, Mr. George A. Wright, and others. This article was written for the Palestine Newspaper during Mary Kate Hunter's lifetime. The following Editor's note, was written by the Editor of the Palestine newspaper at the time the article was written. (Editor's note: Miss Kate Hunter, local historian, has kindly consented to furnish an occasional article upon matters of historical interest to Palestine and Anderson county people. This, the first of these articles, was written after painstaking preparation and may be regarded as authoritative. In the tree- shaded tombs of the Old cemetery lie the majority of Palestine's early pioneers and each name carved there upon a crumbling stone is a page from the story of Palestine's growth. Herself a member of a pioneer family, her mother, Mrs. N. V. Hunter, having been born in Houston county in the days of the Republic of Texas, Miss Hunter is perhaps better fitted than any other person to write about the history of Palestine. Readers are urged to preserve these articles.) Submitted by Kathy Odom