Gann Memorial Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Gann Memorial Cemetery in Angelina County. Now settle in, because this one's got deep roots. We're talkin' roots that go all the way down into the mid-1800s, when this patch of East Texas ground first started keepin' watch over the people who worked it.

Over 3,000 graves. Let that number sit with you a moment. Three thousand souls, resting on land that has a story going back before the Civil War.

The story starts with a man named Nathan W. Gann. Nathan came to Texas with his family in 1836, which means he was part of that early wave, the ones who arrived when Texas was still figuring out what it was going to be.

By 1860, Nathan had been here long enough to have built something. And what he built, he gave away. That year, he donated this property, along with a church building he had constructed himself, to Williams Chapel Methodist Church.

A man who builds a church and then hands it over. That's a particular kind of generosity. The first known burial on this land followed just a year later, in 1861.

Jacob J. Gann, laid to rest in the ground Nathan had given. Then decades passed.

Communities grew up around the place. The lumber industry took hold. Agriculture spread across the county.

And Angelina County started filling in with life and, quietly, with loss. In 1893, Williams Chapel Methodist Church disbanded, and the property reverted back to Nathan Gann. He didn't hold onto it.

He deeded it over to the Missionary Baptist Church, which is known today as O'Quinn Baptist Church. So this land passed hands twice through generosity, and both times it stayed in service to the people around it. Over time, the area became known as the Central-Pollok community, and Gann Memorial Cemetery became its primary burial ground.

Among those interred here are at least five county officials and over 200 veterans, veterans of conflicts dating all the way back to the Civil War. Numerous members of fraternal organizations found their rest here too. The former Lufkin U.S.

Air Force Radar Base was located nearby, and later the site of the Lufkin State School as well, all of it woven into the fabric of what this community became. For a long time, it was family members of the interred who kept the place up, tending to their own, the way folks do when no institution has stepped in yet. Local landowners were generous with the land as the cemetery grew.

Then in 1978, the Gann Memorial Cemetery Association took on the work of maintaining it formally, making sure those 3,000 and more didn't go untended. Walk through the grounds today and you'll find curbing, false crypts, vertical stones, and obelisks. The full range of how people choose to mark a life.

What Nathan W. Gann started with a donation in 1860 is still going. Still receiving.

Still remembering. Three thousand graves and counting, and every one of them a pioneer of somewhere.

What the marker says

This burial ground, which contains over 3,000 graves, has served area residents since the mid-1800s. In 1860, Nathan W. Gann, who came to Texas with his family in 1836, donated this property and a church building he constructed to Williams Chapel Methodist Church. The first known burial on this land was of Jacob J. Gann in 1861. In 1893, the church disbanded and this property reverted to Nathan Gann, who then deeded it to the Missionary Baptist Church, which is now known as O'Quinn Baptist Church. Many early Angelina County pioneers used this property as a burial ground. As the area's lumber and agricultural industries developed, a number of rural communities organized. The former Lufkin U.S. Air Force Radar Base (later the site of Lufkin State School) was also located nearby. Gann Memorial Cemetery became the primary burial ground for residents of the area, which became known as the Central-Pollok community. Among those interred here are at least five county officials, over 200 veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War and numerous members of various fraternal organizations. Over the years, family members of the interred cared for the cemetery, which grew due to the generosity of local landowners. In 1978, the Gann Memorial Cemetery Association began to maintain it. The cemetery features curbing, false crypts, vertical stones and obelisks. Today, Gann Memorial Cemetery continues to serve local families and provides a reminder of the early pioneers of the Central and Pollok communities. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2007