DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, this story starts the way a lot of Texas stories do — with land, and family, and the quiet permanence of the dead. The Forest Academy Cemetery, up in Hopkins County, wasn't formally set aside until 1858.
But don't let that fool you. The land was probably used as a burial ground before that year ever came around. The earth was already keeping its secrets.
Settlement of the area had begun back in 1847, when Thomas Madison and Elizabeth — she was born a Fanning — Ticer brought their family here. And just one year after that, Thomas Ticer was gone. Died, just like that.
And here's the thing that'll sit with you: there is no record of his burial in the county. He brought his family to this land, and then he disappeared from the record entirely. His wife Elizabeth, though — she was interred right here in this graveyard, in 1879.
The land remembered her, even if it forgot him. The first known marked grave in Forest Academy Cemetery belongs to Martha McCorkle, who died in 1858 — the same year the cemetery was formally set aside. Same year a man named Winship S.
Petty, born in 1804, bought himself eight hundred and sixty-five and a half acres of Hopkins County land. Now that's a specific number, and specific numbers in old Texas land deals tend to mean somebody was paying very close attention. Part of that acreage included this burial ground, and what Petty did next tells you something about the man — he donated it to the Forest Academy community and increased the total area of the cemetery to six acres.
Later, he supplied the lumber from his own sawmill, down in Angelina County, to build the first community church and school building. He gave the land. He gave the timber.
And when Winship S. Petty died in 1881, he was laid to rest right here — in an unmarked site. The man who shaped this place left no stone to mark his own place in it.
By 1910, the families who had lived in this area had moved on. Scattered, the way communities sometimes do. What they left behind was the Methodist Church building — and this cemetery.
Two quiet things standing in a field, reminding anyone who cared to look that a whole agricultural settlement had once taken root here. Then, in 1971, the burial ground was vandalized. Many of the old grave markers were destroyed.
Just like that — history, chipped and broken and gone. But the cemetery continues to stand. Through settlement and loss, through neglect and damage, it stands as an important element in the region's heritage.
Some places just refuse to be forgotten, no matter how hard the years try.
What the marker says
This cemetery was not formally set aside until 1858. But the land probably was used as a burial ground prior to that time. Settlement of the area began in 1847 when Thomas Madison and Elizabeth (Fanning) Ticer brought their family here. Thomas Ticer died one year later, but there is no record of his burial in the county. His wife was interred in this graveyard in 1879. The first known marked grave in Forest Academy Cemetery is that of Martha McCorkle, who died in 1858. In the same year, Winship S. Petty (1804-1881) bought 865.5 acres of land in Hopkins County. Since this burial ground was a part of that acreage, he donated it to the Forest Academy community and increased the area of the cemetery to six acres. Petty later supplied the lumber from his sawmill in Angelina County to build the first community church and school building. Petty is interred here in an unmarked site. By 1910 the families who lived in this area had moved, leaving only the Methodist Church building and this cemetery as reminders of this early agricultural settlement. The burial ground was vandalized in 1971, which destroyed many of the old grave markers. It continues to stand, however, as an important element in the region's heritage.