Ingram Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, out on the Van Zandt County road. Now, Stephen Ingram was a man who knew something about hard country. He served in the United States Army through the second Seminole War, a conflict that ran from 1835 all the way to 1842.

That is a long stretch of time to be in the fight. Whatever he saw out there, Stephen Ingram came through it, and when 1850 arrived, he loaded up his wife Elizabeth, born a McKleroy, and their family, and he pointed them toward Van Zandt County. He didn't move into a house.

He built one. Log homes, right here on this site, alongside the Tyler-Porter's Bluff Road. That road had a destination on each end and the Ingram place sitting square in the middle of the journey.

Stephen Ingram passed in 1858, and that burial was the first in what would become Ingram Cemetery. The ground had a name now, and before long it had more company. Two granddaughters came to rest here next, infant daughters of Mary Ingram and her husband David Cade.

A grandfather first, then two babies. The cemetery had barely begun and already it held the full weight of what cemeteries are asked to carry. Years rolled forward.

In 1897, Stephen's son James gave the cemetery land to the descendants of Stephen Ingram. The family keeping the ground, the ground keeping the family. By 1997, a count turned up 56 graves.

And when you stand back and look at who is resting in those 56 plots, you are looking at a single family's thread running through American wars. Two of Stephen's own sons served in the Civil War. Four veterans of World Wars I and II lie here.

Two Korean War veterans as well. One man survived the Seminole War, built log homes on a Texas road, and started a cemetery with his own burial in 1858. By the time someone counted the graves in 1997, that cemetery was holding veterans of five separate American conflicts.

That is not just a family buried in the ground. That is a family woven into the country itself. This account comes to us by way of Polly L.

Martin, Historian, whose name is incised on the base of the marker.

What the marker says

Stephen Ingram, who served in the U. S. Army in the second Seminole War (1835-1842), moved to Van Zandt County with his wife Elizabeth (McKleroy) and their family in 1850, building log homes on this site by the Tyler-Porter's Bluff Road. Stephen Ingram's burial in 1858 was the first in the Ingram Cemetery. He was soon joined by two granddaughters, infants of Mary (Ingram) and David Cade. The cemetery land was given to the descendants of Stephen Ingram by his son James in 1897. From a count of 56 graves in 1997, there are two Civil War veterans (sons of Stephen Ingram), four veterans of World Wars I and II, and two Korean War veterans. (1998) Incise on base: Polly L. Martin, Historian