DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at Chapel Hill Cemetery tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some places earn their history slowly, layer by quiet layer. Chapel Hill Cemetery in San Augustine County is one of those places.
And it starts — as so many Texas stories do — with someone who'd already lived a long, hard life before they ever set foot on this ground. The first recorded burial here is for Able Allison Lewis, a veteran of the American Revolution. Think about that for a moment.
A man who'd seen the birth of one nation came west, and in 1838, this patch of Texas earth became his final rest. He'd outlived a revolution. He just couldn't outlive everything.
Now, oral tradition — and in a place like San Augustine, oral tradition carries weight — tells us it was his widow, Patsey Lewis, who gave land along El Camino Real for a public graveyard after his death. She didn't just grieve. She gave.
And then she stayed. Patsey Lewis and several of her family members are buried right there alongside Able, in the same ground she offered up to the community. The burials from the 1830s and 1840s have a particular character to them.
They're oriented north-south, several marked with slabs of hewn native rock — not marble, not granite, just the land itself shaped into remembrance. Among those early graves you'll find Dr. Samuel Thompson and his wife, Precious Wofford Thompson.
And then there's Sumner Bacon. An ordained Cumberland Presbyterian Minister who served as chaplain and courier for Sam Houston during the Texas Revolution. Chaplain, courier, and now — quiet resident of Chapel Hill Cemetery.
The veterans buried here span remarkable time. From the American Revolution all the way through the Texas Revolution and the Indian Wars of the 1830s. Generations of men who answered when called, and then came home — or tried to.
The gravestone materials tell their own kind of story: native stone, marble, granite, cement. You can almost read the passing decades in what families could afford, or what they had close to hand. Familiar names root themselves in this ground.
Fussell, Johnson, Layfield, Noble, Rhodes, Smith, Williams. Names that show up in county records and church rolls and courthouse documents, names that built a community stitch by stitch. In 1912, the cemetery expanded westward — land bought from B.
B. Fussell — because a living community keeps needing room for its dead. Chapel Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, South, stood on that property and served the community for many years.
And in 1937, the whole community came together — donations, materials, labor — to build a new church building. That's not a committee decision, that's neighbors deciding something matters enough to build it with their own hands. Chapel Hill prospered as a rural community, cotton being the main crop, right up until World War II.
And then the war reached in and pulled people out. Most residents left — some for combat, some for war industries like the shipyards in Beaumont. The community cotton gin closed after the war.
The church discontinued services in the 1990s. But here's the thing about a cemetery. It doesn't close.
The Chapel Hill Cemetery Association still maintains the graveyard and that church building. The cemetery remains active, still serving the area, still adding names to ground that received its first recorded burial in 1838. From a Revolutionary War veteran to the 1990s, from hewn native rock to granite, from one widow's gift to a whole community's chronicle — Chapel Hill Cemetery has been keeping the story of this corner of San Augustine County for nearly two centuries.
Some libraries have books. This one has stones.
What the marker says
The first recorded burial here is for Able Allison Lewis, a veteran of the American Revolution, in 1838. Oral tradition identifies his widow, Patsey Lewis, as giving land along El Camino Real for a public graveyard after his death. She and several of her family members are buried in the cemetery. These and other burials of the 1830s and 1840s are oriented north-south, several marked with slabs of hewn native rock. Other early burials include Dr. Samuel Thompson and his wife, Precious Wofford Thompson; and Sumner Bacon, an ordained Cumberland Presbyterian Minister who served as chaplain and courier for Sam Houston during the Texas Revolution. Veterans of conflicts dating to the American Revolution are interred here, with several having fought in the Texas Revolution and the Indian Wars of the 1830s. Gravestone materials include native stone, marble, granite and cement. Familiar names here include Fussell, Johnson, Layfield, Noble, Rhodes, Smith and Williams. In 1912, the cemetery expanded to the west through land bought from B. B. Fussell. Chapel Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was located on the property and served the community for many years. The entire community helped with donations, materials and labor to build a new church building in 1937. Chapel Hill continued to prosper as a rural community with cotton as the main crop until World War II, when most residents left for combat or war industries such as the shipyards in Beaumont. The community cotton gin closed after the war, and the church discontinued services in the 1990s. The Chapel Hill Cemetery Association maintains the graveyard and church building. The cemetery remains active and continues to serve the area while also serving as a chronicle of community history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2010