DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Antioch Cemetery in Freestone County has to say — and friend, this one's got layers. Now, some cemeteries just hold the dead. Antioch Cemetery holds a whole world.
The marker ties its beginning to the Turlington community, the Antioch and Mt. Zion churches, and the rural country spreading out around them — a country of ample springs and creeks, the kind of land that calls to settlers like a promise. And those settlers came.
Most of them arrived by steamboat, riding the Trinity River up from Galveston, which is a detail worth sitting with for a moment. Picture that — whole families and their futures floating upriver into East Texas. The Antioch Baptist Church got established in 1870.
The cemetery followed seven years later, in 1877. And here's where the story turns just a little bittersweet. The man elected as the church's first pastor — Reverend John M.
Webb, who came from Ouachita County, Arkansas, born in 1824 — he became, in that same year the cemetery opened, the first soul laid to rest in it. 1877. First pastor. First burial.
That is a thing the marker states plainly, and it doesn't need any dressing up. The people of this region mostly made their living by farming or ranching. But some of the folks buried here carried lives that stretched well beyond the field rows.
Take Samuel G. Wells. The marker calls him one of the community's more memorable men, and that's putting it modestly.
Wells came to Texas in 1833. He fought in the Texas Revolution. He fought in the Kickapoo War.
And he was one of the founders of Anderson County. Wells rests in Antioch alongside his second wife, Lettie, and her brother Benjamin Garner — a Civil War veteran. Then there's Reverend James King Lane, who also lies here.
Civil War veteran. Founder and postmaster of the Lanely community. And a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
One cemetery plot holding that particular resume. Now, Conrad Henry is buried here too — born in Germany, and noted by the marker as the only known first generation immigrant in Antioch. His headstone stands taller than any other marker in the cemetery.
Make of that what you will. The cemetery itself has a quiet logic to it. The oldest graves sit at the center, and the newer burials spread outward from there in every direction — like rings in a pond moving slowly away from wherever the first stone dropped.
And growing throughout those plots is a pioneer-style flower called deer tongue. It is said that the pioneers who settled here brought that flower to the area. It's still growing.
Antioch is still used today. Historical burials and modern ones, coexisting together — the marker's own words. That center of old graves surrounded by the new, a flower carried in by the first settlers still blooming among them.
Some places just hold a community's whole continuum in a single piece of ground, and Antioch Cemetery is one of them.
What the marker says
ANTIOCH CEMETERY THE BEGINNING OF ANTIOCH CEMETERY IS VERY CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TURLINGTON COMMUNITY, THE ANTIOCH AND MT. ZION CHURCHES, AND THE SURROUNDING RURAL AREA. THE AREA HAS AMPLE SPRINGS AND CREEKS WHICH INCREASED THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO SETTLED HERE. MOST CAME TO THIS REGION VIA STEAMBOATS ON THE TRINITY RIVER FROM GALVESTON. THE ANTIOCH BAPTIST CHURCH WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1870, AND THE CEMETERY WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1877. REV. JOHN M. WEBB (1824-1877), OF OUACHITA COUNTY, ARKANSAS, WAS ELECTED AS THE PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN 1870 AND WAS THE FIRST TO BE BURIED IN ITS CEMETERY IN 1877. THE PEOPLE OF THIS REGION MOSTLY MADE A LIVING BY FARMING OR RANCHING. SAMUEL G. WELLS WAS ONE OF THE COMMUNITY'S MORE MEMORABLE MEN. HE CAME TO TEXAS IN 1833, FOUGHT IN THE TEXAS REVOLUTION AND THE KICKAPOO WAR. HE WAS ALSO ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF ANDERSON COUNTY. WELLS IS BURIED HERE WITH HIS SECOND WIFE, LETTIE, AND HER BROTHER, BENJAMIN GARNER, A CIVIL WAR VETERAN. REV. JAMES KING LANE ALSO LIES IN THIS CEMETERY. HE WAS ALSO A CIVIL WAR VETERAN, FOUNDER AND POSTMASTER OF THE LANELY COMMUNITY AND A MEMBER OF THE TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. CONRAD HENRY, BORN IN GERMANY, IS THE ONLY KNOWN FIRST GENERATION IMMIGRANT BURIED IN ANTIOCH. HIS HEADSTONE IS TALLER THAN ANY OTHER MARKER IN THE CEMETERY. THE CEMETERY IS SITUATED SO THAT THE OLDER GRAVES ARE IN THE CENTER WITH THE NEWER BURIALS ON THE OUTER EDGES IN ALL DIRECTIONS. THE PIONEER STYLE FLOWER CALLED "DEER TONGUE" IS GROWING THROUGHOUT THE PLOTS. IT IS SAID THAT THIS UNIQUE FLOWER WAS BROUGHT TO THE AREA BY THE PIONEERS WHO SETTLED HERE. STILL USED TODAY, ANTIOCH CEMETERY REFLECTS A CONTINUUM OF LOCAL HISTORY WITH BOTH HISTORICAL AND MODERN BURIALS COEXISTING TOGETHER.