DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Hayes Cemetery has to say — and it's quite a story to tell. Now, picture a man who crossed an ocean, then a continent, then showed up in Texas right around 1836. That man was Patrick Hayes, an Irish native who'd made his way here by way of New York and Maryland.
He hadn't been in Texas long before he enlisted in the Texas Army and fought in the War for Texas Independence. When it was over, he was honorably discharged for his service — and instead of moving on, he moved here. To this area.
And he got to work. In the years that followed, Patrick Hayes amassed large tracts of land. Cotton farming.
Horse breeding. And not just one plantation — three of them, all strung along the Trinity River. He called them Seven Oaks, Cairo, and Boggy Creek.
Three plantations, one man. That's a particular kind of ambition. Folk knew him as Dr.
Hayes — and that title wasn't just courtesy. He practiced herbal medicine and was respected as a rural doctor throughout the area. So you've got a veteran, a planter, a horse breeder, and a healer, all wrapped up in the same Irish immigrant who'd arrived with essentially nothing but the road behind him.
Now here's where the story turns quieter. In 1857, Hayes began a cemetery on the Seven Oaks Plantation — a private family burial ground. The first burial there, around that same year, was his son.
James Frank Hayes. A father burying a child is a grief that doesn't need elaboration. Approximately two years later, Patrick's wife — Amanda Melissa Johnston — died at Old Waverly.
She wasn't buried here at first. But Patrick Hayes made sure that situation didn't stand. He put it in his will: she was to be reinterred at this site.
He saw to that even from beyond his own reckoning, because Hayes himself died in 1863 and is also believed to be buried here, alongside her at last. The cemetery's only marked grave today belongs to their daughter, Melissa Elizabeth Hayes Goree, and her infant child. They died during childbirth in 1865 at the Goree family plantation — a place called Raven Hill — and were later reinterred here.
One marked stone. Mother and child. The rest of the ground holds what the ground holds in silence.
The marker also tells us it is believed that Hayes family slaves and servants were buried at this site as well, though written documentation has not been found. Their presence in this ground is part of its history, even where the record goes quiet. Patrick's remaining children — and the descendants who came after them — chose in time to be buried at the nearby Midway Cemetery.
And so Hayes Cemetery grew still. Inactive, as they say. But it remains.
Three plantations along the Trinity. A soldier, a doctor, a father, a man of will — literally. And a piece of ground in Madison County that still holds the early chapters of a family's time in Texas.
Some stories don't need a grand finale. They just need someone to say: this happened here, and it mattered.
What the marker says
HAYES CEMETERY IRISH NATIVE PATRICK HAYES ARRIVED IN TEXAS CA. 1836 BY WAY OF NEW YORK AND MARYLAND. SHORTLY AFTER HIS ARRIVAL HE ENLISTED IN THE TEXAS ARMY AND FOUGHT IN THE WAR FOR TEXAS INDEPENDENCE. AFTER BEING HONORABLY DISCHARGED FOR HIS SERVICE, HE MOVED TO THIS AREA. IN THE FOLLOWING YEARS HAYES AMASSED LARGE TRACTS OF LAND THAT HE USED FOR COTTON FARMING AND HORSE BREEDING. HE ESTABLISHED THREE PLANTATIONS—SEVEN OAKS, CAIRO AND BOGGY CREEK—ALONG THE TRINITY RIVER. HAYES WAS KNOWN AS “DR. HAYES” AND PRACTICED HERBAL MEDICINE AS A RESPECTED RURAL DOCTOR. THE CEMETERY AT THIS SITE BEGAN IN 1857 AS A PRIVATE FAMILY BURIAL GROUND ON THE SEVEN OAKS PLANTATION. THE FIRST BURIAL OCCURRED CA. 1857, WHEN HAYES’ SON, JAMES FRANK, DIED. APPROXIMATELY TWO YEARS LATER, PATRICK HAYES’ WIFE, AMANDA MELISSA JOHNSTON, DIED AT OLD WAVERLY. HAYES LATER REQUESTED IN HIS WILL THAT SHE BE REINTERED AT THIS SITE; HE DIED IN 1863 AND IS ALSO BELIEVED TO BE BURIED HERE. THE CEMETERY’S ONLY MARKED GRAVE IS THAT OF PATRICK AND AMANDA’S DAUGHTER, MELISSA ELIZABETH HAYES GOREE, AND HER INFANT CHILD, WHO DIED DURING CHILDBIRTH IN 1865 AT THE GOREE FAMILY PLANTATION, RAVEN HILL, AND WERE LATER REINTERRED HERE. IT IS ALSO BELIEVED THAT HAYES FAMILY SLAVES AND SERVANTS WERE BURIED AT THE SITE, ALTHOUGH WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION HAS NOT BEEN FOUND. PATRICK HAYES’ REMAINING CHILDREN AND LATER DESCENDANTS CHOSE TO BE BURIED IN THE NEARBY MIDWAY CEMETERY, AND THE HAYES CEMETERY BECAME INACTIVE, BUT REMAINS TODAY AS A SYMBOL OF AN EARLY PIONEERING TEXAS FAMILY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2005