Lindsey Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Out here in Tyler County, there's a piece of ground that started with a dying man's last wish. W.

C. Lindsey knew tuberculosis was going to take him. And before it did, he asked for one thing: to be laid to rest on his family's land.

He got his wish. When he died in 1898, his parents, David S. and Caroline E. Lindsey, established this family cemetery right there on that land.

That's how Lindsey Cemetery came to be. A son's final request, and parents who honored it. Now, the nearly fifty graves here tell a story that stretches back well before 1898.

Among those buried in this ground are two brothers, David S. Lindsey and James Oliver Lindsey, who came to Texas all the way from Mississippi with their family in the 1840s. Think about that journey.

Two boys, a family, pulling up roots and heading into Texas. And then the Civil War comes calling. Both brothers enlisted as Confederate soldiers.

Both of them stepped forward. And David, he didn't stop there. After the war, David S.

Lindsey went on to serve in the Texas Legislature. A man who had crossed into Texas as a boy, shouldered a rifle as a soldier, and then took a seat in the halls of state government. All of that, and now he rests in the same quiet cemetery his family built for a son who simply wanted to come home.

The Lindsey Cemetery Association maintains this site to this day, keeping that ground, and those stories, from being forgotten.

What the marker says

When W. C. Lindsey knew he was dying of tuberculosis, he asked to be buried on his family's land. After his death in 1898, this family cemetery was established by his parents, David S. and Caroline E. Lindsey. Among the nearly 50 graves here are brothers David S. Lindsey and James Oliver Lindsey, who came to Texas from Mississippi with their family in the 1840s. Both enlisted as Confederate soldiers in the Civil War, and David served in the Texas Legislature. This site is maintained by the Lindsey Cemetery Association. (1997)