Old Independence Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Old Independence Cemetery. A very old graveyard of Anglo-Texas, started about 1823 on the league of Judge J. P.

Cole. Now, Cole was one of the Old Three Hundred, that storied group of settlers in the Austin Colony, and his land is where this ground began. A daughter of his, Madora Cole McCrocklin, gave the site for a cemetery, and folks have been finding their rest here ever since.

What rests beneath this soil reads like a roll call of early Texas itself. Statesmen. Educators.

Physicians. Lawyers. War veterans.

Men and women the old records simply call Old Texians. All of them gathered here on a piece of Washington County ground that has been holding memory since around 1823. That's a long time to be keepin' somebody's name.

What the marker says

A very old graveyard of Anglo-Texas. Started about 1823 on league of Judge J. P. Cole, one of the "Old 300" in the Austin Colony. A daughter, Madora Cole McCrocklin, gave the site. Many statesmen, educators, physicians, lawyers, war veterans and other "Old Texians" are buried here.