DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Bolton Cemetery, out in Camp County. Settle in — this one carries some weight. Ebenezer Bolton — folks called him Ebb — and his wife Martha came to this part of Texas in the 1850s and put down roots the way settlers did in those days: hard and deep.
They established an extensive plantation, and before the Civil War, they owned a number of slaves. That's the world this place was born into, and it's worth sitting with that a moment before moving on. The cemetery itself got its start in 1861, when Martha Bolton's mother, Rebecca Durley, passed away and was laid to rest here.
That was the first burial, the first marker of time in this ground. Now, Ebb Bolton died in 1877. And what happened after that — well, that's where this story turns in a direction you might not expect.
His widow Martha made arrangements to provide land to their former slaves. The marker doesn't dress that up with a lot of words, and neither will I. She did it.
That land became the foundation of something — a community that grew up in the area and came to be known as the Bolton community, a Freedmen's town. And this cemetery became a part of that community. Both Ebb and Martha Bolton are interred here.
So are many of the former slaves. So are their descendants. The same ground holds all of them — the plantation family, and the people they once owned, and the generations that followed into freedom.
Some cemeteries just keep the dead. This one keeps a whole complicated chapter of Texas history, right there beneath your feet.
What the marker says
Ebenezer (Ebb) and Martha Bolton settled in this area in the 1850s. They established an extensive plantation and owned a number of slaves before the Civil War. Following Ebb Bolton's death in 1877, his widow made arrangements to provide land to their former slaves. This cemetery, which began in 1861 upon the death of Martha Bolton's mother, Rebecca Durley, became a part of the Bolton community, a Freedmen's town which built up in the area. Both Ebb and Martha Bolton are interred here, as are many of the former slaves and their descendants.