Dewalt Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Dewalt Cemetery in Fort Bend County. Now, every good family story starts somewhere, and this one starts on the road. In 1845, a man named Thomas Walters Dewalt packed up his life in South Carolina and traveled until he found himself on the banks of Oyster Creek.

He settled in, and before long he had established a plantation on that land. Now Thomas was a man who thought ahead. In 1850, he set aside one point two acres for the burial of two sisters of Charlotte E.

Brown. That's a quiet, serious thing to do, setting aside ground for the dead before most of the living have even arrived. He would go on to marry Charlotte in 1858.

But here is the thing that makes you stop and think. All that careful planning, all that ground set aside as far back as 1850, and the earliest marked burial the cemetery holds is that of Smyly Dewalt, in 1869. Whatever happened to those two sisters, their resting place in that original ground was either unmarked or lost to time.

The cemetery kept on, as cemeteries do. In 1931 it was formally set aside by deed, giving it the weight of legal ground. Then in 1983, about three and a half acres were added, room enough for the names that matter here: Dewalt, Martin, Robinson, Roane, Bledsoe, and Cessna.

And that ground along Oyster Creek is still in use today, still holding its families close, just as Thomas Walters Dewalt intended when he first laid eyes on that land back in 1845.

What the marker says

In 1845 Thomas Walters Dewalt (1822-1874) traveled from South Carolina and settled on nearby Oyster Creek. He soon established a plantation, and in 1850 set aside 1.2 acres of land for the burial of two sisters of Charlotte E. Brown, whom he married in 1858. However, the earliest marked burial here is that of Smyly Dewalt in 1869. The cemetery was formally set aside by deed in 1931. About 3.5 acres were added to the graveyard in 1983. Still in use, the Dewalt Cemetery is reserved for the Dewalt, Martin, Robinson, Roane, Bledsoe, and Cessna families.