Iron Bluff Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Iron Bluff Cemetery tells it this way, and I'm passing it right along to you. Somewhere in Morris County there's a piece of ground that started as one family's farewell place, and wound up holding the weight of just about every war this country ever asked its people to fight. Let me walk you through it.

Livingston Skinner was born in 1795, and he came to this part of Texas from Georgia in the early 1840s. He brought his wife, Hedidah, who folks called Jodie, she was a Hughes before she married, born in 1806. He brought the children too.

They settled in, and at the northwest corner of their property, they set aside ground for family. That was the beginning of what we now call Iron Bluff Cemetery. The first marked burial there dates to 1853.

That was Emily, one of the Skinners' daughters, recorded on the stone only as E.F. The following year, they laid her sister Amanda, marked N.E.A., in the same ground. Two daughters, back to back years.

You don't need to dress that up. It speaks plainly enough on its own. Other family members followed.

Son William Moses Skinner, born 1832 and living all the way to 1907, was a Confederate veteran. Daughter Sarah Ann's husband, Joseph D. Lilly, born 1816 and died 1860, carried a remarkable set of credentials.

He was a Texas Ranger, and he was the first sheriff of Titus County. Think about that combination for a moment. The ground also holds Livingston Skinner himself, the man who started all of this.

And here is where the story gets its full depth. Livingston wasn't just a pioneer and a patriarch. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, and he had served in the Creek Indian Wars of 1813 and 1814.

The man who staked out a corner of Texas for his family's rest had already seen more than one chapter of American conflict long before Texas was even a glimmer. In time, the cemetery grew beyond the Skinner family. Residents of Lone Star began using the burial ground.

The site once held the Iron Bluff Schoolhouse as well, so for a season this land served both the living and the dead. And the veterans kept coming home to it across generations. Civil War veterans rest there.

So do veterans of World War II, the Korean Conflict, and Vietnam. Different wars, different eras, but the same quiet corner of Morris County receiving them all. Iron Bluff Cemetery, the marker says, serves as an important link to those veterans and to generations of area residents who played important roles in the area's history.

That's the official word, and it's the honest one. From a Georgia family arriving in the early 1840s to a daughter buried in 1853, to a first sheriff and a Ranger, to soldiers from conflicts spanning more than a century and a half, one cemetery held all of it. Some places earn their ground.

What the marker says

Livingston Skinner (1795-1874) came to this part of Texas from Georgia in the early 1840s with his wife, Hedidah "Jodie" (Hughes) (1806-1881), and their children. The Iron Bluff Cemetery began as a family cemetery at the northwest corner of their property. The first marked burial in the graveyard dates to 1853 and is that of the Skinners' daughter E.F. (Emily). They buried her sister N.E.A. (Amanda) here the following year. Other family members interred here include son William Moses Skinner (1832-1907), a Confederate veteran, and daughter Sarah Ann and her husband Joseph D. Lilly (1816-1860), who was a Texas Ranger as well as the first sheriff of Titus County. Residents of Lone Star began using the burial ground, which once was also the site of the Iron Bluff Schoolhouse. Among those buried here are numerous veterans of the Civil War, and landowner Livingston Skinner, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Creek Indian Wars of 1813-14, as well as veterans of World War II, the Korean Conflict and Vietnam. Iron Bluff Cemetery serves as an important link to these veterans and to generations of other area residents who played important roles in the area's history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005