Shamburger Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Shamburger Cemetery in Smith County tells it this way, and I'm just the fellow passing it along. Now, every family has a starting point, a moment when somebody decided to load up everything they owned and aim at the horizon. For the Shamburgers, that moment came in 1847, when Peter Shamburger and his family left Mississippi and headed for Texas.

They landed in the area near Starrville, in what would become Smith County, and they put down roots the way people did back then. Quietly. Permanently.

Peter's son Mathew didn't wait long to build a life of his own. In 1849, Mathew married Julia Ann Shockley, and the two of them settled in a community called Fruit. That community would later be renamed Pine Springs, but in those early years it was just home.

And home, for Mathew and Julia, meant land and work and the particular patience it takes to grow things. Because growing things is exactly what this family did. Mathew and Julia's son, T.

J. Shamburger, along with other family members and neighbors, pioneered the growing of fruit trees and roses in Smith County. Sit with that for a second.

Roses. In East Texas. Mathew and T.

J. were among the first to raise roses on a commercial basis in the entire region. That is not a small thing. That is a family leaving a mark on the land in petals and fragrance and commerce, generation by generation.

In 1874, T. J. and his wife, Settie, purchased the land surrounding this very site. And then, the very next year, something happened that no parent is ever ready for.

Their two-month-old daughter, Nettie, died. And so the ground T. J. and Settie had just made their own became something more solemn than a homestead.

That loss, in 1875, is what created this family graveyard. In the years that followed, the cemetery filled slowly, the way family cemeteries do. Mathew and Julia were laid to rest here.

T. J. and Settie themselves. Children, grandchildren, in-laws.

The generations stacked up quiet as seasons. And somewhere among those graves are three burials that have no markers at all. Three names the land is keeping to itself.

The last of T. J. and Settie's children to be buried in the family plot was a son, William Martin, in 1967. More than ninety years after little Nettie first consecrated the ground.

The Shamburger Cemetery, the marker says, serves as a reminder of a pioneer East Texas family and their contributions to Smith County's agricultural development. But I'd say it's a little more than that. It's where the people who planted the roses are planted themselves.

And that, friend, is as East Texas as it gets.

What the marker says

Members of the Peter Shamburger family came to this area of Texas from Mississippi in 1847. Peter and his family lived near Starrville. His son, Mathew, married Julia Ann Shockley in 1849 and settled in the Fruit community (later renamed Pine Springs). Mathew and Julia's son, T. J., along with other family members and neighbors, pioneered the growing of fruit trees and roses in Smith County. Mathew and T. J. were among the first to raise roses on a commercial basis in East Texas. Land surrounding this site was purchased by T. J. Shamburger and his wife, Settie, in 1874. The next year, this family graveyard was created upon the death of their two-month-old daughter, Nettie. In later years other Shamburger family members were interred here, including Mathew and Julia; T. J. and Settie; and a number of children, grandchildren, and in-laws. The last of T. J. and Settie's children to be buried in the family plot was a son, William Martin, in 1967. Among the graves here are three unmarked burials. The Shamburger Cemetery serves as a reminder of a pioneer East Texas family and their contributions to Smith County's agricultural development.