Mays Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's what Duane knows about Mays Cemetery out in Rusk County. Now, before you drive past this quiet ground without a second thought, let me paint you a picture of what this land has carried. This was a pioneer burial ground, and it served the New Salem Community, a settlement that in the 1850s had itself a stagecoach stop, a post office, and the New Salem Academy.

That's a community with ambition, friends. Ambition, and roots. Among the early settlers were the Mays and Swink families, who came out of Madison County, Tennessee.

They put down stakes here, and the man who owned the land where this cemetery was established was John Mandeville Mays. The ground sits between Quinn Mountain and the Angelina River, which is just about as fitting a resting place as any piece of Texas hill and water could offer. Now, tradition states, and I want you to hear those words clearly, tradition states, that two slaves were the first to be buried here.

Before any headstone was carved, before any name was chiseled into marble or granite, two people were laid in this earth without the record they deserved. That's a weight this ground has carried from the very beginning. The oldest marked grave belongs to Mary S.

C. Swink, who was just two years old when she died in 1856. Two years old.

Some stories don't need dramatic pacing. They just need to be said. Among those buried here are veterans of military conflicts going all the way back to the Civil War.

The headstones are marble and granite, standing prominent, and if you walk these grounds in the right season you'll find jonquils blooming and crepe myrtle trees growing, historic plantings that have outlasted nearly everyone who put them there. A cemetery association formed in the 1930s to keep watch over all of it. People decided this place was worth tending.

Between Quinn Mountain and the Angelina River, I'd say they were right.

What the marker says

This pioneer burial ground served the New Salem Community. In the 1850s, the settlement had a stagecoach stop, post office and the New Salem Academy. The Mays and Swink families of Madison Co., Tennessee were among the early settlers. John Mandeville Mays owned the land where the cemetery was established, sited between Quinn Mountain and the Angelina River. Tradition states that two slaves were the first to be buried here. Two-year-old Mary S. C. Swink died in 1856, and hers is the oldest marked grave. Among the burials are veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. Marble and granite headstones are prominent, and historic plantings include jonquils and crepe myrtle trees. A cemetery association formed in the 1930s. Historic Texas Cemetery-2006