DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Out here in Angelina County, there's a place called Stranger's Rest Cemetery, and that name alone ought to make you slow down a little. The story goes back to 1901, when recorded burials first began on this ground.
Four years later, in 1905, three trustees — R. D. Holland, Sydney Hackney, and S.
D. Long — acquired one acre right here from the Lufkin Land and Timber Company on behalf of an Angelina County African American cemetery group. One acre.
Not much ground, but ground that would come to mean a great deal. Now, it wasn't always called Stranger's Rest. The graveyard was first known as Frost Cemetery.
But somewhere around 1915, according to local tradition, the name began to shift. Because of the large number of drifters buried here — folks just passing through, with no one to carry their names home — people started calling it Stranger's Rest Cemetery. Think about that.
A place that took in the ones nobody else was expectin'. The last recorded interment was that of Norris Patton, in 1946. And after that, the site fell into disrepair.
The years were not kind to it. But here's the part of the story that doesn't end in forgetting. In 1991 and 1992, members of the local community and county volunteers came back.
They reclaimed it. Every stranger resting here got that back — a tended piece of ground and a name worth remembering.
What the marker says
R. D. Holland, Sydney Hackney, and S. D. Long, trustees of an Angelina County African American cemetery group, acquired one acre here from the Lufkin Land & Timber Co., in 1905. Recorded burials began in 1901. The graveyard was first known as Frost Cemetery but according to local tradition began to be called Stranger's Rest Cemetery about 1915 because of the large number of drifters buried here. The last recorded interment, that of Norris Patton, took place in 1946. The site fell into disrepair but was reclaimed by members of the local community and county volunteers in 1991-92. Sesquicentennial of texas Statehood 1845 - 1995