New Salem Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at New Salem Cemetery tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in Fannin County, the mid-1840s were a time when folks were still feeling their way across a land that had barely finished being a Republic. Pioneers were pushing into this corner of Texas, staking claims, building lives from whatever the land would give them.

And among those early arrivers was a man named Philip Greenleaf Williams. He came in 1844. That's early.

Real early. And he didn't just show up empty-handed — he established a water-powered gristmill south of Bois D'Arc Springs. Think about what that meant out here: a mill means flour, flour means bread, and bread means neighbors.

Philip Greenleaf Williams was setting down roots so deep they were meant to last generations. But here's where the story takes its turn. In 1848, Williams left for Virginia.

He was going to bring his wife and his family back to this land he'd been building toward. You can imagine the journey — the anticipation, the reunion, the whole family finally heading west together toward that gristmill, toward that future. They made it a long way.

And then they reached the Red River. He drowned on the return journey. Just like that, Philip Greenleaf Williams — the man who'd hauled a mill up out of the Texas earth — never made it home.

His family buried him right here, at what would become New Salem Cemetery. There was reportedly already one soul resting in that ground before him — a young boy, interred before Williams arrived. But Williams' gravestone bears the earliest date the cemetery formally records.

His wife, Nancy — Nancy Chaney Williams — she stayed. Several of his family members stayed. They're interred here too, not far from the man who'd crossed so much country to build something for them.

And they weren't alone in that ground for long. The names carved into these grave markers read like a roll call of the families who built this corner of Fannin County. The Self family, for whom the surrounding community is named.

The Broadfoots, the Craddocks, the Dobbses, the Denisons, the Elams, the Gilberts, the Joneses, the Newberrys, the Pittses, the Shipmans. Pioneer families, one and all. Today, a cemetery association maintains this burial ground.

The community around it has dispersed over the years, scattered to the winds the way communities do. But this cemetery holds its ground — a link, the marker calls it, to the era when Texas was making that long transition from Republic to statehood, one family at a time. Philip Greenleaf Williams came in 1844 to build something that would last.

He didn't make it back across the Red River. But New Salem Cemetery? It's still right here.

What the marker says

Pioneers began settling this area in the mid-1840s, and Philip Greenleaf Williams was among them. He arrived in 1844 and established a water-powered gristmill south of Bois D'Arc Springs. He left for Virginia to bring his wife and family to the area in 1848, but he drowned in the Red River on the return journey. Williams' family buried him here, where a young boy had reportedly already been interred. Williams' gravestone bears the earliest date. Several of his family members, including his wife, Nancy (Chaney), remained in the area and are also interred here. The names of many of the area's pioneer families are found on the grave markers in New Salem Cemetery. These include members of the Self family, for whom the surrounding community is named. Other families represented here include Broadfoot, Craddock, Dobbs, Denison, Elam, Gilbert, Jones, Newberry, Pitts and Shipman. Today, a cemetery association maintains the burial ground, which serves as a link to the dispersed community that formed in this area in the era when Texas transitioned from Republic to statehood. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2003