Fort Houston Cemetery History *************************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Transcribed by Nancy Crain Submitted by Scott Fitzgerald - scottfitzgerald@tyler.net East Texas Genealogical Society, 1st Vice-President 20 March 2007 *************************************************************************** Originally published in The Tracings, Volume 3, No. 2, Fall 1984, Pages 107-113 by the Anderson County Genealogical Society, copyright assigned to the East Texas Genealogical Society. Fort Houston Cemetery The story of this ancient yet still active cemetery begins with the story of two pioneers of Anderson County in 1835. This area was then designated as part of the Nacogdoches District. Joseph Jordan, one of David C. Burnett's first colonists, and William S. McDonald, a surveyor, donated some 500 acres for the town of Houston. There is also an early map of the townsite in existence which shows various donations and which includes an area designated as a "Public Burying Ground." The townsite was located in the curve of Town Creek approximately two miles west of present-day Palestine, Texas, on Farm Road #1990. The Public Burying Ground, now known as Fort Houston Cemetery, is on a hill to the southwest. It is approximately one and one-half miles west of Loop #256, on Harcrow Road, but was only one-half to three-fourths a mile from the townsite "as the crow flies." As the town lived and died, so did its people who were buried in the Public Burying Ground. The families would choose their resting spot, and, when necessary, perform the funeral service for loved ones if there was no visiting minister in the area. In 1836, Rev. Peter Fullinwider, the first Protestant minister in Anderson County, was commissioned by General Sam Houston to come to the fort and assist the citizens to reach Old Stone Fort in Nacogdoches for safety, during the Runaway Scrape. After the decisive battle at San Jacinto, however, they resumed their normal life. A baby was born to the Fullinwider family but died in infancy, and is reported to have been the first to be buried in this Public Burying Ground. There apparently was an area set aside for soldiers, for Jeff D. Reagan, son of the Civil War statesman, Judge John H. Reagan, described it as follows in a notarized statement in 1942: "in one location there were a number of graves placed side by side as if there were a purpose in placing them that way. That group was said to have been the graves of Texas soldiers, and there were seventeen of them, as I now recollect . . .I now live at Fort Houston where I was born and am familiar with the graveyard, and know the location of the graves that are said to be those of the Texas soldiers." After the fort, built in the town square, was abandoned from lack of use, the town became knows as Fort Houston, then later when it disappeared, the home of Judge Reagan was called "Fort Houston," probably because it was part of the original land. This historic cemetery was fenced with a fence of native stone and cedar logs by the Fort Houston Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas in 1941, with the native rock gateway completed the following year. On Decoration Day 1942, various honor guests joined the local dignitaries in holding a joint ceremony dedicating the stone gateway, a large native rock memorial stone at the graves of the seventeen soldiers of the Texas Revolution, and a memorial stone on the site of Fort Houston itself. The soldiers' plot (about 70' x 16') was a double-row plot and marked with cement corner benches. The large native boulder with its granite marker inscribed "The Soldiers of the Republic of Texas buried therein" was placed in the center of the plot. Since then, there has been continuous research to identify these previously unknown soldiers. Two of them were found to be veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto, with other information given as follows: John W. Carpenter, veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, was born September 25, 1806, and died October 12, 1838. He was killed about four miles east of present-day Palestine, in an Indian skirmish prior to the main Battle of Kickapoo, brought back to the Ft. Houston Cemetery and buried there. Julius Bullock died in the same skirmish as described above. They were part of Major Leonard H. Mabbitt's force enroute to join the army of General Thomas J. Rusk at the Battle. He died the same day as John W. Carpenter and was one of those brought back to Ft. Houston and buried in the cemetery there. Thomas M. Scott, a private, was also killed on October 12, 1838. The muster roll shows him to be of Capt. Squire Brown's Co., 1st Regiment, Mounted Gunmen, 4th Brigade. Two others, John Wilson, and ______ Wright, were also reportedly killed in this same skirmish and are buried in the soldiers' plot in the cemetery. James Hall, a member of Gen. Rusk's Army was mortally wounded in this battle, on October 16, 1838. He and the other twenty-five wounded were borne on litters back to Fort Houston. The others recovered but he lingered some twenty days before dying in early November 1838. James Wilson, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, died of yellow fever in Houston, September 8, 1844, and is buried in the Ft. Houston Cemetery. His second enlistment indicates he was a member of Capt. W. H. Secrest's Company of Washington Cavalry. William Frost was the last white man killed by the Indians in Anderson County. His last service in the Army of Texas was either December 1840, or January 1841. He was killed near the Trinity River at West Point, sometime during the latter part of February 1841. He was a son-in-law of the pioneer Joseph Jordan, who had donated the land for the townsite and the cemetery. David Faulkenberry (Fortenbury) is supposed to have been buried with an arrow still in his back, in the old cemetery. He and a group of friends had crossed the Trinity River to gather up some horses that had strayed. They found some of them and also plenty of Indian signs. A fight occurred but before a canoe and help could come from across the river, David had died near a water hole, "lying upon a bed of grass which he had evidently prepared to breathe his last upon." Columbus Anderson died during the same skirmish, "two miles farther on," with two arrows sticking through his back. Date of death was either January 29th or 30th, 1837, the same as David's. Colonel Richard Sparks who lived near the fort was killed down near the Trinity River and scalped. He, also, is buried in the soldiers' plot. Nothing else is known about him at this time. Another Indian massacre which affected these people of Houston occurred in the spring of 1839. The Charles C. Campbell family had arrived some two years earlier and settled a few miles from the fort; however, the husband sickened and died. A week later, there was an Indian raid on their home, killing Mrs. Campbell and three of her children --- Malathiel, Huldah, and Fountain. All five of these are reported to be buried in the cemetery. Later on that same year, the Battle of Kickapoo took place and the army of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk won a decisive victory over the Indians in less than an hour. As the Indian problems lessened, the fort was not needed and finally was abandoned with the town of Houston then being called Fort Houston. Yellow fever and other diseases also took their toll of these settlers. Capt. Nathan Glenn led one caravan which included his wife and family to the fort. They had come by way of Red River County, and camped at Clarksville for a time to give the family some rest. By the time they reached Fort Houston in the fall of 1840, several family members and the slaves were ill with the dread disease. So they stayed in the cabin formerly occupied by the massacred Campbell family until the disease had run its course before entering the town. Two of the children, Virginia and William, died as well as several of the slaves. All were buried in the Public Burying Ground - the slaves in the area reserved for them. Another family affected by yellow fever was that of General Nathaniel W. Smith, a veteran of the War of 1812. As a young First Lieutenant in the 39th Regiment, U. S. Infantry, he fought in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend along with San Houston who was a Second Lieutenant at the time. He also fought in the Seminole War in Florida with Andrew Jackson and young John H. Reagan who was a volunteer in his command. He, his wife, and eleven children arrived at the fort in the fall of 1838. A son-in-law, Dr. James Hunter, died from the fever within a year, and his tombstone is the earliest marked grave in the cemetery with its 1840 date. Gen. Smith and his wife were also dead by 1841. Both Gen. Smith and Dr. Hunter have markers in the soldiers' burial section. A bronze 1812 marker dedicated to the memory of Gen. Smith in a ceremony in 1939 has disappeared. There are many unmarked graves; some of which have towering cedar trees as markers. One group of five cedar trees in a row indicate the final resting spot of the Hall family. Two granddaughters, Miss Rosa Heath and Mrs. Henry W. Kitcher, both of Palestine, state that John Henry Hall (1840-1880), his wife Nancy Jane (1840-1906), James who died as a teenager, and daughters Nancy and Nellie, who died as infants, are buried at the base of those trees. Joseph and Elizabeth Jordan, the original pioneer family, are buried in Ft. Houston Cemetery, according to their great-grandson, Mr. C. L. Greenwood. There is also a "Granny" Jordan, who taught school at Fort Houston and had a famous garden of "medicinal herbs and roots" buried in this cemetery. The section reserved for slaves contains many people, both in unmarked and marked graves. There are scattered Civil War markers here also, as well as W.W.I and W.W.II. One unusual marker is that for Margaret Bakor. The most recent burial is in this section; that of Mrs. Darcus Diggs Deckard, 84, who was buried here on April 13, 1984, under the direction of the McCoy Funeral Home. Within two or three years after the Fort Houston Cemetery was cleaned and fenced by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas in 1942, it became neglected again. Today, however, it is again being cared for by both Negroes and whites. In 1954, an association was formed of the descendants of those buried there, and their first order of business was to enclose the original white burial section with a 5-foot hurricane fence, attaching it to the still erect stone gates erected some twelve years earlier. The present officers of the Fort Houston Cemetery are: President, Mrs. Martha Lamb; Vice-President, Mrs. Eva Holmes; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Virginia Lemacks; and Treasurer, Mrs. Louise Graves. The present Board of Directors is composed of Martin Redwine, emeritus, Willard Freeman, Johnnie Neel, Phineas Holmes, and Frank Lemacks. The Association hold their annual Memorial Service at the cemetery on the first Sunday in June. There are more than 500 marked graves in the combined sections of this Public Burying Ground. The Negro Association is composed of Paul Hicks, President, and Harold Smith as Treasurer with Eddie and Roscoe Gross serving as the Board of Directors. They meet at various churches as the need arises. These are only a few of the stories of the pioneers who lie in this historic cemetery. It is a quiet, peaceful hillside surrounded by trees. While the Centennial stone marks the site of the townsite of Houston (later called Fort Houston), and the Daughters of American Colonists marked the Reagan homesite (also called Fort Houston) in 1951, this Public Burying Ground is the only one of the three still in existence and merits a State Memorial Marker. By Mrs. Harmon Watts (This history was documented and sent in with an application for an historical marker to the State Commission, in the summer of 1984.)