Springhill Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Sabine County, there's a piece of ground called Springhill Cemetery, and the story it holds goes back further than most Texans care to count. The first person known to have been interred there was William Isaac Pace, in 1837.

Eighteen thirty-seven. That's early Texas, folks, the kind of early where the ground itself was still bein' figured out. The Pace home stood right on that very site, and according to local history, the family established a Methodist church and a school, contributing significantly to the development of the Springhill community.

The community for which the cemetery was named. So the name and the family and the ground are all tangled up together from the very beginning. Now, the Pace family wasn't alone out there for long.

The Bennett, Campbell, Conner, Cooper, Davidson, Davis, Dent, Easley, Ferguson, Hyden, Jacks, Tatom, and White families all put down roots in that soil too, their names carved into stone across that hillside. And two of those names deserve a moment all their own. Maria Ann Davis Pace, born in 1812, died in 1909.

The marker says she lived to be nearly a hundred years old. Think about what that means. She was alive when this cemetery was just getting started, and she was still here when a whole new century had already gotten comfortable.

And then there's William F. Stanley, born in 1869, died in 1968. Nearly a hundred years of his own.

Between those two people, they witnessed American history from its rawest edges clean into the modern age. But perhaps the deepest thing that ground holds is this. Buried in Springhill Cemetery are veterans of the War of 1812, the Texas Revolution, the Mexican War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Every American conflict from the second war this nation ever fought, all the way through Vietnam, has a soldier resting in that one quiet cemetery in Sabine County. Generation after generation, answering the call, and coming home to the same hillside. That's not just a cemetery.

That's a long, faithful record of what this country asked of its people, and what those people gave.

What the marker says

The first person known to have been interred here was William Isaac Pace in 1837. The Pace home was located on this site, and according to local history the family established a Methodist church and a school, significantly contributing to the development of the Springhill community for which the cemetery was named. Other pioneer families represented here include the Bennett, Campbell, Conner, Cooper, Davidson, Davis, Dent, Easley, Ferguson, Hyden, Jacks, Tatom and White families. Maria Ann Davis Pace (1812-1909) lived to be nearly 100 years old, as did William F. Stanley (1869-1968). The graves include veterans of the War of 1812, the Texas revolution, the Mexican War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. (1999)