Stevens Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's what Duane's got for you on Stevens Cemetery in DeWitt County. Now, some families arrive in Texas with a little fanfare. Others just show up, roll up their sleeves, and get to work.

Joseph Stevens, born in 1810, and his wife Sarah Ann Steen Stevens, born in 1820, they were the second kind. In 1846, they came west from Rankin County, Mississippi, and they didn't come alone. With them came Stevens, Steen, and Stephens relatives, and a number of slaves, all of them making that long journey together toward a new stretch of ground.

When they arrived in this part of what is now DeWitt County, they bought land from members of Green DeWitt's Colony. Then they set about doing what settlers do. They farmed.

They raised cattle. They put down roots near this very site. But roots, as any Texan knows, come with a cost.

The oldest marker in the family burial ground belongs to an infant. Joseph Enoch Stevens, the son of Joseph and Sarah Ann, was laid to rest there in 1851. That small stone, marking the smallest of lives, is the earliest testament this cemetery holds.

And then, just a few months after that infant was buried, the baby's grandfather followed him into that ground. Elisha Stevens, born in 1776, was laid to rest nearby. A grandfather and a grandson, separated by generations, brought together by that same quiet piece of DeWitt County earth.

Sarah Ann herself would be gone by 1860. Joseph followed in 1861. The family had barely gotten started, and yet the land they chose kept holding them.

Honored in this cemetery are pioneer family members, veterans, and descendants. The whole heritage of this corner of DeWitt County lives in those stones. Some people write history in books.

These folks wrote it right here in the ground.

What the marker says

Joseph (1810-1861) and Sarah Ann Steen (1820-1860) Stevens, with Stevens, Steen, and Stephens relatives and a number of slaves, arrived in this area from Rankin County, Mississippi in 1846. They bought land from members of Green DeWitt's Colony and began to farm and raise cattle near this site. The 1851 grave of their infant son, Joseph Enoch Stevens, has the oldest marker in this family burial ground; the infant's grandfather, Elisha Stevens (1776-1851), was laid to rest nearby a few months later. Honored here are pioneer family members, veterans and descendants, the heritage of this area of DeWitt County. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002