Fuqua Family Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for the Fuqua Family Cemetery in Grimes County tells it like this, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Now, some families leave their mark on a place with a courthouse, or a town square, or a statue out front of the county seat. The Fuqua family left theirs a little differently.

They left it in the earth itself. Ephraim Fuqua was among the earliest families to settle in this part of Texas. And we're not talkin' statehood Texas, either.

We're talkin' Republic of Texas. In 1841, Ephraim Fuqua received a land patent from the Republic of Texas, which means he planted his roots here before Texas ever joined the Union. He built his homesite, he worked the land, and somewhere along the way he did something that tells you a great deal about a man: he donated a portion of that property so a cemetery could be established.

The burial ground sits approximately four hundred feet south of Ephraim's original homesite. Close enough that it never felt far from home. The first recorded burial in that ground is a heavy one.

Patrick H. Fuqua, a Confederate soldier, died in 1862. He was the first to be laid to rest in the cemetery that bears his family's name.

That's the kind of fact that settles over you quiet, like dust after a long ride. But the family kept coming, and they kept serving. Other Fuqua family members buried in that cemetery include veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II.

Generation after generation, answering the call, and coming home, in one way or another, to that same piece of ground four hundred feet south of where Ephraim once stood. The marker calls the cemetery a memorial to a pioneering Texas family, and it's hard to argue with that. From a Republic-era land patent to the soldiers of three wars, the Fuqua family cemetery doesn't just hold the dead.

It holds the whole arc of a Texas family, pressed right down into Grimes County soil.

What the marker says

FUQUA FAMILY CEMETERY FUQUA FAMILY CEMETERY WAS NAMED FOR THE EPHRAIM FUQUA FAMILY, ONE OF THE EARLIEST FAMILIES TO SETTLE IN THE AREA. EPHRAIM FUQUA RECEIVED A LAND PATENT FROM THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS IN 1841 AND DONATED A PORTION OF THE PROPERTY FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CEMETERY. THE BURIAL GROUND IS SITUATED APPROXIMATELY 400 FEET SOUTH OF EPHRAIM FUQUA’S ORIGINAL HOMESITE. THE FIRST RECORDED BURIAL HERE IS THAT OF CONFEDERATE SOLDIER PATRICK H. FUQUA, WHO DIED IN 1862. OTHER FUQUA FAMILY MEMBERS BURIED HERE INCLUDE VETERANS OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, WORLD WAR I AND WORLD WAR II. THE CEMETERY SERVES AS A MEMORIAL TO A PIONEERING TEXAS FAMILY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2008