Fawil Sam Herrin Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Newton County, the community of Fawil was once something. Three churches.

A school. A plywood mill. A store.

And three family cemeteries running along the main road, each one holding its own piece of the story. This is about one of those cemeteries, and the family whose name it carries. Sam and Mary Herrin.

Mary's maiden name was Cochran before she became a Herrin, and together they homesteaded on one hundred and six acres in this corner of East Texas. They had eleven children survive to adulthood. Eleven.

Now that's a family that leaves a mark on the land. Sam and Mary set aside one acre of that homestead as a family burial ground, a quiet acre meant to hold the people they loved. The earliest burials recorded there are their granddaughter Alice Dougharty, who died in 1911, and their daughter Inez Lenderman, who died in 1912.

Mother and granddaughter, gone within a year of each other. The ground started receiving the family not long after. And it kept receiving them.

Dozens of burials now rest in that cemetery, most of them descendants of Sam and Mary, pioneers whose reach spread across generations. Among them are veterans. Men and women who answered the call in the Civil War, in World War I, in World War II, in Korea, and in other military service beyond those.

They came home to Fawil, or they were brought home to Fawil, and the family acre holds them still. Today the cemetery occupies one third of that original acre Sam and Mary set aside. One third of one acre, holding dozens of souls, holding soldiers, holding the children and grandchildren of a pioneer couple who put down roots on a hundred and six acres and never really left.

The community of Fawil has changed. But that ground hasn't forgotten a single one of them.

What the marker says

The Fawil Community, which once had three churches, a school, a plywood mill and a store, also includes three family cemeteries along the main road. Sam and Mary (Cochran) Herrin Homesteaded on 106 acres and had 11 children survive to adulthood. They set aside one acre for a family burial ground, where their granddaughter Alice Dougharty (d. 1911) and daughter Inez Lenderman (d. 1912) are the earliest burials. Many veterans are buried here from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and other military service. The cemetery occupies one-third of the original acre designated for burial purposes. Most of the dozens of burials here are descendants of Sam and Mary Herrin, a pioneer family whose impact can still be seen on the landscape.