Milam Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is Milam Cemetery, up in Sabine County, and the story starts a long time before anyone thought to put a headstone in the ground. We're talking centuries.

Native Americans traveled through this land. Spanish explorers passed through. Soldiers and missionaries.

And nearly all of them found their way to Las Boregas Creek, a few hundred yards west of where the cemetery sits today, and made camp. That creek had a pull to it that nobody seemed to be able to resist. By 1539, Spanish explorers were already coming through what is now Milam.

Think about that number for a moment. Fifteen thirty-nine. Now hold onto it.

We'll come back to why it matters. The settlement that would eventually become Milam was first called Red Mound, sometimes written Red Mount, and it served as the seat of government for the Sabine district since 1822. It was surveyed as a town site in 1828.

And it was the first county seat of Sabine County. This was a place that mattered. Now, one man who came through this country and put his impressions down on paper was Stephen F.

Austin. On July 16, 1821, he wrote in his diary, and I want you to hear his exact words, because they capture something the land was still saying out loud in his day. He wrote: We then suddenly came to an open rolling country thinly timbered soil about the color of Spanish Browne, and in some places redder, this red land is very productive and is covered with the most luxuriant growth of grass I ever beheld in any country.

That red land. That red mound. Up on a high hill above the community, the cemetery watches over all of it.

And here is where the story gets quietly remarkable. The exact date of the first burial will never be known. Let that settle.

Never. Because local historians believe Anglo burials may have occurred here as early as 1775, and the reasoning is straightforward: travelers were using that campsite down the hill on Las Boregas Creek, and some of them didn't make it back to the road. The land the cemetery sits on was granted to John Smith on February 26, 1835.

The first marked burial is dated 1864. But more than one hundred unmarked graves are suspected to lie here, silent and uncounted. Among those who are buried here, you'll find military veterans stretching all the way back to the Creek War.

You'll find prominent early citizens from the Causey, Weatherred, McGrew, and Nethery families. Generations of the community, gathered on that high hill. Milam Cemetery may be the oldest organized cemetery in Sabine County.

Not the flashiest claim in Texas, maybe. But when a place has been receiving the dead since possibly 1775, has watched Spanish explorers, Texian settlers, Creek War veterans, and founding families all pass through, all rest, all stay, well. That high hill has earned a little quiet dignity.

The community down below keeps changing. The creek keeps running. And the cemetery keeps its watch.

What the marker says

Milam, the first county seat of Sabine County, has a history of travelers and visitors stretching back centuries. Native Americans and Spanish explorers, soldiers and missionaries passed through and often camped on Las Boregas Creek. Texian settlers encountering the natural abundance echoed the words of Stephen F. Austin, who recorded in his diary entry of July 16, 1821: We then suddenly came to an open rolling country thinly timbered soil about the color of Spanish Browne, & in some places redder this red land is very productive and is covered with the most luxuriant growth of grass I ever beheld in any country. The settlement first called Red Mound (Red Mount) was the seat of government for the Sabine district since 1822, and was surveyed as a town site in 1828. Milam Cemetery is on a high hill overlooking the historic community. The exact date of the first burial will never be known. Spanish explorers were passing through present-day Milam as early as 1539 and camped on Las Boregas creek a few hundred yards west of the cemetery. Local historians believe Anglo burials occurred here probably as early as 1775, since travelers used the campsite down the hill on Las Boregas. The land on which the cemetery is located was granted to john smith on Feb. 26, 1835. The first marked burial is dated 1864, although more than one hundred unmarked graves are suspected. Numerous military veterans dating back to the Creek War are interred here, as well as prominent early citizens from the Causey, Weatherred, McGrew and Nethery families. Milam Cemetery may be the oldest organized cemetery in Sabine County, and a cherished chronicle of generations of visitors and residents. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2011