McCarty Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm going to tell it to you. In 1860, a man named Orange McCarty, Senior, born in 1813, and his wife Mary Arrington, born in 1820, made a decision that would plant their family's roots deep in East Texas soil. They purchased 2200 acres in the Antonio Solis survey, right here in Angelina County.

They had plans. Big ones. They were coming from Mississippi, and this land was going to be home.

Then the Civil War broke out, and those plans had to wait. And the waiting brought grief with it. Two McCarty sons died in action fighting for the South.

Two sons. Let that sit a moment before we move on. When the war finally ended, the remaining McCartys made the journey they had delayed for years.

They arrived in 1866, joined by the Arrington and McCall families, and together they built a log cabin overlooking Jack Creek. Out of those 2200 acres, one single acre was set aside. Not for farming.

Not for a home. For those who would no longer need a home. A cemetery.

The earliest marked grave tells us this ground was already receiving the departed by 1873. Mary Arrington McCarty herself was gone by 1881. Orange McCarty, Senior lived on until 1897.

Both of them now rest in the county where they had chosen to put down their roots, on land they had bought before a war changed everything. The McCarty Cemetery Association tends this place still, keeping faith with what the marker calls these Angelina County Pioneers. One acre, set aside, holding all of it.

What the marker says

In 1860, Orange McCarty, Sr. (1813-1897) and his wife, Mary Arrington (1820-1881), purchased 2200 acres in the Antonio Solis survey that included this site. Their move here from Mississippi was delayed by the outbreak of the Civil War; two McCarty sons died in action fighting for the South. Join by the Arrington and McCall families, the remaining McCartys finally arrived here in 1866 and built a log cabin overlooking Jack Creek. This acre of land was set aside for a cemetery. The earliest marked grave indicates it was in use by 1873. The McCarty Cemetery Association maintains this resting place for these Angelina County Pioneers.