McGown Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Sabine County, some pieces of ground carry more history than others, and the McGown Cemetery is one of them. The story starts before the cemetery even had a name.

The earliest known burial here is that of a pioneer woman, Anne Kyle, who died in 1842. That was just five years after Sabine County itself came into being. Think about that.

The county was barely finding its footing, and already this ground was being asked to hold someone. Seventeen years would pass before the next recorded burial. Seventeen quiet years.

And then, in 1859, a man named George Washington McGown was laid to rest here. He was born in 1799, and he had served as a justice of the peace in Sabine County during the Republic of Texas era. He was the second person interred in this cemetery, and the first of his family to call it their final resting place.

He would not be the last. His son, Andrew Henderson McGown, born in 1824, went on to serve four terms as Sabine County sheriff. He was a Civil War veteran, and he lived until 1904.

Father and son, both in the same ground. Alongside the McGowns rest two brothers from another prominent pioneer family, the Brownings. William Browning was born in 1833 and lived until 1918.

His brother Perry, born in 1841, lived until 1927. Both men were Civil War veterans. Both were neighbors.

Both are here. What this cemetery holds, when you step back and look at it whole, is the story of Sabine County itself, pioneer families layered one generation deep upon another. And the McGown Cemetery hasn't stopped.

It continues, to this day, to serve the descendants of those same Sabine County pioneers. The ground keeps its promises.

What the marker says

The McGown Cemetery's earliest known burial, that of pioneer Anne Kyle (d. 1842) occurred five years after the formation of Sabine County. Seventeen years later, George Washington McGown (1799-1859), a Sabine County justice of the peace during the Republic of Texas era, became the second person and first of his family to be interred here. Civil War veterans buried here include McGown's son Andrew Henderson McGown (1824-1904), who served four terms as Sabine County sheriff, and neighbors William (1833-1918) and Perry (1841-1927) Browning, also members of a prominent pioneer family. The McGown Cemetery continues to serve the descendants of Sabine County pioneers. (1998)