Freestone County, Texas
Cemeteries



Bottoms Family Cemetery

[Also appears in "History of Freestone County, Vol II" - pg. 44]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contributed by:  Annette Burdett.  Additions by Eric Wood.

Directions: on Alligator Creek, about 18 1/2 miles South from Fairfield.

Cemetery Background:
  The cemetery was originally on land where William B. Self and his wife Mary 
Elizabeth "Polly" Burleson pioneered on the Alligator Creek between the towns of
Donie and Buffalo in the late 1840s. 
  John Newsom in 1892 formally designated 5.5 acres in the W.J. Ladd Survey to
  be for a family graveyard.  (Eldridge Bottoms was already buried there before
  John expanded the family graveyard's limits).  [I really doubt that 5.5 acres 
  was ever used.]

Background:  Eldridge Bottoms was a son of a full-blooded Choctaw Indian
 named Quachataba and his mother was half Choctaw.  Bottoms is an Indian name 
 derived from Balah. Eldridge Bottoms ran away from the tribe in Indian 
 Territory (now Oklahoma) going to Texas and assuming the name Eldridge Bottoms.  
 Eldridge Bottoms arrived in Freestone County in the 1850s.  Eldridge Bottoms 
 married Eliza A. Self on December 17, 1857 in Freestone County.  Eldridge and 
 Eliza had six children. The three older boys died as infants.  The other three 
 children were Thomas H. (m Mary Jane Vann), Prudy Jane (b. 1864, m1 W. H. 
 Phillips 20 Dec 1881, m2 John Wesley Newsom), and Talitha A. (m1 21 Apr 1881 
 Pleasant Ezell, m2 16 Oct 1886 Anderson Bulin).  Eldridge Bottoms died in 1868. 
 Eliza subsequently married John W. Moody on 7 Jul 1870 (who died before his son 
 John W. Jr. was born).  Then Eliza married Edward Ezell on 21 Oct 1877 and they 
 had Betsy. Eliza died on 6 Apr 1904 and was buried at Antioch Cemetery (at Luna) 
 with Edward Ezell.  All of Eldridge Bottoms later three children are buried at 
 Antioch Cemetery (at Luna).


Oldest Unmarked Grave: infant son of Eldridge Bottoms (d abt 1858 to 1868)

Oldest Marked Grave: None marked

Reunions:  Held every October according to Patsy Hughes Carter.

Sources: H. of F.C. Vol I; #637; Vol II; #388; Betty Morrow's cemetery books 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARKED GRAVES:
  None
  

UNMARKED GRAVES:  
  Among those buried here are:
  unknown American Indians refugees from Oklahoma
  Eldridge Bottoms (?-1868), 
  three infant sons of Eldridge Bottoms (d abt 1858 to 1868). 
  Sarah Newsom Perry (mother of John Wesley Newsom) (d aft 1887)
  Also, Dr. W. E. Vick, and several other unknown persons are buried here. No dates available.