Lincecum Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Lincecum Cemetery, out in Caldwell County. Pull over if you can, because this one's got roots that run deep. Garland R.

Lincecum, cousin of Alamo hero James Bowie, and his wife Emmaline packed up their lives in Mississippi and came to Texas, settling on land Garland had already purchased, in 1847. Think about that for a moment. The man bought the land before he even got here.

He knew where he was going. That same year, he signed a petition with others to create Caldwell County itself. He wasn't just movin' in.

He was helping build the place from the ground up. But here's the thing about founding a place. Sometimes it claims you sooner than you planned.

Garland Lincecum died in 1853, and he became the very first person laid to rest in the cemetery that would carry his family's name. Now, the story doesn't end with Garland. It braids together, the way old Texas families tend to do.

A fellow Mississippian named Alexander Roberts had settled in this same area back in 1843, four years before the Lincecums even arrived. Three of Garland and Emmaline's daughters went on to marry sons of that same Alexander Roberts. Two families, same Mississippi roots, same stretch of Texas soil, and then bound together by marriage three times over.

The cemetery held both families, the Lincecums and the Robertses, through the generations. And the last person buried there was Jacob G. Roberts, Garland Lincecum's own grandson, in 1938.

Nearly a century after Alexander Roberts first put down roots nearby, the land was still keeping this family close. Members of both the pioneer Roberts and Lincecum families, and their descendants, rest here together. One man signed a county into existence, became the first soul buried on his own land, and left behind a family whose story filled that ground for nearly a hundred years.

Caldwell County remembers.

What the marker says

Garland R. Lincecum, cousin of Alamo hero James Bowie, and his wife Emmaline left Mississippi and settled on land ha had purchased here in 1847. Lincecum, who signed a petition with others to create Caldwell County in 1847, died in 1853 and was the first person buried here. Three of his daughters were married to the sons of fellow Mississippian Alexander Roberts, who settled in this area in 1843. The last person buried here was Jacob G. Roberts, Lincecum's grandson, in 1938. Members of the pioneer Roberts and Lincecum families and their descendants are interred here.