McCune Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in the Chinquapin Community of Rusk County, there's a piece of ground that has belonged to the same family since 1835 — and friend, that is not a typo. We're talking about McCune Cemetery, and its story reaches back far enough to touch the very roots of Texas itself.

The marker put it all down, so let's walk through it together. Pioneer James L. McCune — born in 1788, gone somewhere around 1838 — came to Texas as a member of David G.

Burnet's colony. That's old Texas, the empresario days, when land grants were the currency of the frontier. And in 1835, James L.

McCune received one. Now, James L. may have passed before he got to see what his family would build here, but his son — also named James, which is either a tribute or a source of considerable confusion — he stayed. And in 1836, that younger James married a woman named Delila Storm, a local Cherokee.

Think about what that year meant. Think about the world those two were stepping into together. They built a life anyway.

They had children. Their third child was a daughter named Susan Elizabeth McCune. And in 1852, Susan Elizabeth became the first known person buried in what would become McCune Cemetery.

The first. A child. That's the kind of fact that deserves a moment of quiet before you move on.

From that 1852 burial forward, the cemetery was handed down through the McCune family, generation after generation, until 1954 — when the McCune Cemetery Association was formally founded to carry that responsibility forward. Today, more than two hundred graves rest on this land. Most are marked with headstones of granite, standing beneath large hickories, oaks, and chinquapins.

The chinquapins, you'll notice, gave the whole community its name. Since 1835, the land has been owned by McCune heirs. Still active.

Still theirs. Nearly two centuries of one family keeping faith with their own — and that, right there, is the long Texas story in miniature.

What the marker says

Located in the Chinquapin Community, McCune Cemetery dates to 1852. Pioneer James L. McCune (1788-c.1838) came to Texas as a member of David G. Burnet’s colony and received a land grant in 1835. McCune’s son, James, married Delila storm, a local Cherokee, in 1836. The first known burial occurred in 1852 for Susan Elizabeth McCune, James and Delila’s third child. The cemetery was handed down through the family until the 1954 McCune Cemetery association was founded. There are more than 200 graves in the cemetery, mostly marked with headstones of granite surrounded by large hickories, oaks and chinquapins. Since 1835, the cemetery land has been owned by McCune heirs and is still active.