DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture the banks of a Texas river, back in 1851, when a man named Reuben Anderson looked out at a stretch of Augustus Sullivan's land and said — this is the place. Anderson didn't just dream about it, either.
He encouraged development of a townsite right there, and to put some skin in the game, two of his own sons went ahead and bought the very first lots sold in Port Sullivan. That's confidence in your own pitch right there. And the town delivered.
It sat along the river, and that river navigation was the lifeblood of the place. Port Sullivan grew into something real — stores, a sawmill, a college, and a population of over one thousand people. A college.
Out there. That's a town that meant business. Then comes 1867, and St.
Paul's Masonic Lodge No. 177 does what communities do when they're planning to stay a while — they bought five acres and set aside a cemetery. A proper one, for the community. Among those laid to rest there is Thomas J.H.
Anderson, who passed in 1871, and whose distinction was considerable — Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas. That's not a small thing to carry to your final resting place. But Port Sullivan's story carries one of those quiet Texas ironies.
The railroads came — and they went right on past. Bypassed the town entirely. And when the railroads bypassed you in that era, well, the town felt it.
Port Sullivan declined. The stores, the sawmill, the college, the thousand souls — all of it faded into the river bottom and the years. Today, the cemetery is the only landmark left of what was once a thriving settlement.
But here's the thing about a well-kept cemetery — somebody has to care. Since 2004, the San Andres Masonic Lodge No. 170 of Cameron has been tending that burial ground. Keeping the grass, keeping the memory.
Port Sullivan may be gone, but out on those five acres, it hasn't been entirely forgotten.
What the marker says
In 1851, Reuben Anderson encouraged development of a townsite on Augustus Sullivan's land; two of Anderson's sons bought the first lots sold in Port Sullivan. The town benefitted from river navigation and grew to include stores, a sawmill, a college, and a population of over one thousand. In 1867, St. Paul's Masonic Lodge No. 177 bought five acres for a community cemetery. One notable burial is that of Thomas J.H. Anderson (d. 1871), Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas. The town declined when bypassed by railroads, and today the cemetery is the only landmark left of this once-thriving settlement. Since 2004, the San Andres Masonic Lodge No. 170 of Cameron has cared for the burial ground. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006