DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Lockett Cemetery in Marion County. Now settle in, because this one reaches back a long way — and it covers a whole lot of ground, in more ways than one. Royal and Martha Lockett came to Texas from Georgia somewhere between 1856 and 1858.
They didn't come light. They brought eleven surviving children, and they brought the family's slaves. That is a significant migration, and the marker doesn't let you forget the weight of it.
The Locketts put down roots in Marion County, and those roots ran deep. When the Civil War came calling, seven of their eight living sons answered — and survived — in the Confederate Army. Seven out of eight.
That's a number that sits heavy in your chest when you think about the odds of that era. Now here's a detail that'll stop you in your tracks. According to family oral history, a Union soldier who died on the Lockett Plantation is also buried in that graveyard.
The marker doesn't give you a name, doesn't give you a regiment — just that quiet fact, passed down through the family's own telling. An enemy, buried on the land of a family that sent seven sons to the other side. The cemetery itself keeps an old record.
The earliest marked grave belongs to Walter R. McGarity, born 1853, died 1862 — a child, just a child, son of James H. and Marie Antoinette Lockett McGarity, and grandson of Royal and Martha themselves. Six generations of Lockett descendants have been laid to rest on this site.
By 1999, more than forty-five souls were interred there — among them two veterans of the Confederate Army and three veterans of World War Two. That's quite a span of American history held in one piece of Marion County ground. The marker calls it a chronicle, and it's hard to argue with that.
From a Georgia family arriving with their children and their slaves, through a war that split the country, through a world war beyond that — it's all there, quiet in the earth. Lockett Cemetery is still active. Still keeping the record.
What the marker says
Royal and Martha (Smith) Lockett came to Texas from Georgia between 1856 and 1858 with their eleven surviving children and the family's slaves. Seven of their eight living sons survived in the Confederate Army. The earliest marked grave on this site is that of Walter R. McGarity (1853-1862) son of James H. and Marie Antoinette (Lockett) McGarity and grandson of Royal and Martha Lockett. Six generations of Lockett descendants are interred here. according to family oral history, a Union solider who died on the Lockett Plantation also is buried in the graveyard. Of the more than 45 interred here by 1999, two were verterans of the Confederate Army and three were veterans of World War ll. The Lockett Cemetery continues as a chronicle of Marion County history. (1999)