Hamilton-Beeman Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Hamilton-Beeman Cemetery in Navarro County. Now settle in, because this one starts with land, the way most Texas stories do. William Harvey Beeman, born in 1817, came into Navarro County on a Mercer colony grant, six hundred and forty acres of Texas earth, and he brought his family here in the 1840s.

Six hundred and forty acres sounds like a lot until you're standing under a wide-open sky and realize Texas has a way of making even big numbers feel modest. Next door, or near enough to matter, was Samuel Hamilton, born in 1820, a pioneer in his own right, with his own adjacent property and his own stake in this corner of the county. Two men, neighboring land, neighboring lives.

And somewhere in the 1850s, they did something that outlasts almost everything else either of them did. Each one gave an acre. Beeman, a freighter and a local justice of the peace, gave one.

Hamilton gave one. Two acres set aside, side by side, for a cemetery. Now, you can give all kinds of things to a community.

You can give your time, your labor, your vote. But land, that's a different kind of giving. That stays.

The first person laid to rest in that ground was Hamilton's infant son, in 1859. A hard beginning, as first burials tend to be. In time, both William Harvey Beeman, who died in 1860, and Samuel Hamilton, who lived on until 1900, were themselves buried in the cemetery they had helped to create.

And the land kept growing, through gifts, through purchases, acre by acre, until that original two acres had become over forty-seven. Two men gave one acre each, and what grew from it has been growing ever since.

What the marker says

William Harvey Beeman (1817-1860) received a Mercer colony grant of 640 acres in Navarro County and brought his family here in the 1840s. He and pioneer Samuel Hamilton (1820-1900), who owned adjacent property, each gave one acre to establish this cemetery in the 1850s. The first burial was that of Hamilton's infant son in 1859. Both Hamilton and Beeman, a freighter and local justice of the peace, are buried here. Gifts and purchases of additional land have enlarged the cemetery to over 47 acres.