McDougle Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about McDougle Cemetery out in Harris County. Now settle in, because this one's got roots that go deep into Texas soil, and a family that held on just about as long as families can hold on. In 1838, a man named George McDougle bought a hundred acres out of the John House survey.

Brought his family to that land, built a house, established a farm, raised cattle. The man was putting down stakes, and those stakes held. The McDougle family kept ownership of that homestead for a hundred years.

A hundred years. Let that breathe a moment. George himself was no stranger to the rough edges of early Texas.

In 1839, he rode as a Texas Ranger. And when he died in 1871, it is thought he was laid to rest right there on the family land, though no tombstone marks the spot. His wife Jane, born a Laughlin, had gone before him.

She died in 1864, and the marker tells us her burial is thought to be the first in the cemetery, though she too rests without a stone to carry her name. They are present in memory and likely in the ground, but the land does not advertise the fact. Their son James Ellison McDougle, born in 1829, did get a marked grave.

He earned it the long way. Civil War veteran. Harris County commissioner from 1879 to 1881.

He died in 1892 and is buried here alongside his wife Joanah, born Laughlin as well, who came into this world in 1834 and did not leave it until 1922. Three of their sons are buried here too. One of those sons, John Kaleb McDougle, born in 1865, followed his father's civic footsteps and served as a Harris County commissioner in 1902, then died in 1934.

Now the story rolls forward into the twentieth century, and George and Jane's grandson Robert, born in 1857, made a decision in 1938. He sold the family homestead. A hundred years of McDougle ownership, handed off.

But Robert was careful about one thing. He kept the right of access to that cemetery. Robert, who died in 1941, is interred there, as is his wife Elizabeth, who was born in 1862 and died in 1935.

And the last twentieth-century interment in that historic graveyard was Robert and Elizabeth's son, Virgil Kaleb McDougle, whose burial came in 1956. Today there are fifteen marked graves in the McDougle Cemetery, and an unknown number of unmarked ones. Other names on those stones, Bonds, Pevateaux, Weathers, Spell, remind you that a family homestead draws more than just the family.

It draws the people whose lives got tangled up with theirs. George McDougle bought a hundred acres in 1838 and built something that outlasted him by generations. The land changed hands.

The stones, some of them anyway, are still standing.

What the marker says

This small cemetery reflects the common 19th-century custom of burying friends and family near the family homestead. In 1838, George McDougle (1786-1871) bought 100 acres out of the John House survey and moved his family to the property surrounding this cemetery, on which he built a house, established a farm and raised cattle. The McDougle family retained ownership of the homestead for 100 years. There are 15 marked graves in the McDougle cemetery and an unknown number of unmarked graves. The first burial is thought to be that of George McDougle's wife, Jane (Laughlin), who died in 1864. There is no tombstone for her grave, nor for that of George, a Texas Ranger in 1839, who died in 1871 and is also thought to be buried here. Their son James Ellison McDougle (1829-1892), a civil war veteran and Harris County commissioner from 1879 to 1881, is buried here in a marked grave, as is his wife, Joanah (Laughlin) (1834-1922), and their three sons. One son, John Kaleb McDougle (1865-1934) served as a Harris County commissioner in 1902. Other family names that appear on grave markers in the cemetery are Bonds, Pevateaux, Weathers and Spell. In 1938, George and Jane McDougle's grandson Robert (1857-1941) sold the family homestead but retained the right of access to the cemetery. Robert and his wife, Elizabeth (1862-1935), are interred here, as is their son Virgil Kaleb McDougle, whose burial in 1956 was the last 20th-century interment in the historic graveyard. (2001) Historic Texas Cemetery (2001)