Houston-Lea Family Cemetery

Duane's take

Well, the marker tells it plain, and it's my job to tell it true — so here's how it stands, straight from the official record. Now, you'd think a name like Houston would guarantee a certain kind of ending. A ceremony, maybe.

A procession. A place beside her husband in Huntsville. That was the plan, or near enough to it.

But 1867 had other ideas. Yellow fever swept through, and when the widow of Sam Houston died in that epidemic, the danger of contagion changed everything. Carrying her to Huntsville simply could not be done.

The fever made sure of that. So she stayed here, in Washington County, and here she remains. She lies in this cemetery alongside her mother, Mrs.

Nancy Lea. Not far from the sites of their last homes. Not far from the old church they both loved.

There's something in that, if you sit with it a moment. Two women, mother and daughter, bound to this same patch of ground — by love of a place, by love of a church, and finally, by circumstances none of us get to choose. The widow of Sam Houston didn't make it to Huntsville.

But maybe, in the end, she's exactly where she belonged.

What the marker says

When the widow of Sam Houston died of yellow fever during the epidemic of 1867, the danger of contagion made it impossible to carry her to Huntsville for burial beside her husband. She lies here, with her mother, Mrs. Nancy Lea, near the sites of their last homes and the old church they both loved.