DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, out on the Sabine County road. John and Margaret Payne came rolling out of Georgia bound for Texas — around 1835, when Texas was still a republic waiting to happen. John had been born in 1784, Margaret in 1788, and together they planted roots deep in Sabine County soil.
John was no stranger to hard times or hard service. He'd already carried a musket in the War of 1812, and once he settled in Texas he kept right on serving — as a justice of the peace and as a state legislator for Sabine County. A man who'd seen enough of the world to know what a piece of ground was worth.
And he set aside a piece of it — right here — for a cemetery. Now, rest a moment on that. John Payne looked at this land and said, this is where we'll keep our people.
His son Epperson Duke Payne, born in 1810, didn't get much time on this earth. He was there at the Siege of Bexar. He was there at the Battle of San Jacinto — two of the most consequential fights in Texas history.
And then, in 1840, Epperson Duke Payne was gone, buried in the very ground his father had set aside. John himself followed in 1848. Margaret held on until 1857.
This small graveyard kept filling quietly through the decades. Lewis Williams, born in 1836, a Civil War veteran, found his rest here too, in 1916, along with relatives and descendants who carried the story forward row by row. Two families, a few acres of Sabine County, and a whole lot of Texas history pressed into the ground.
Some cemeteries just hold the dead. This one holds a chapter.
What the marker says
John (1784-1848) and Margaret (1788-1857) Payne came to Texas from Georgia about 1835. A veteran of the War of 1812, John served Sabine County as a justice of the peace and as a state legislator. He set aside land for this cemetery, where many of his descendants are buried, including his son Epperson Duke Payne (1810-1840), who served at the Siege of Bexar and the Battle of San Jacinto. Others interred in the small graveyard include Civil War veteran Lewis Williams (1836-1916) and several of his relatives and descendants.