Tidwell (Steele Creek) Cemetery and Community

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Tidwell Cemetery and the community that grew up along Steele Creek in Limestone County. Pull up a chair, because this one's got layers. Settlement in this area along Steele Creek began in the 1850s, and right from the start the place couldn't quite decide what to call itself.

Over the years it went by Steele Creek, Tidwell, Shady Grove, and Pleasant Grove. Four names for one little corner of Texas. That's not confusion, that's personality.

The heart of it all was a Methodist church named for the Reverend David J. Tidwell, born in 1802, who settled here with his family in 1853. By 1856, the community had its own post office, and Tidwell himself served as postmaster.

Add two general stores, the church, homes, and a school, and you had yourself a genuine going concern out on the Texas frontier. Then comes the part the marker handles quietly and you should too. In the cemetery on a four-acre piece of ground, the oldest documented grave belongs to Nancy Hogan, wife of J.

M. Hogan, who died in February of 1858. She almost certainly wasn't the first buried there, the marker says burials probably began earlier, but hers is the oldest we can confirm by name and date.

About 175 marked graves eventually filled that ground, plus an unknown number of unmarked ones. The inscriptions on those stones tell a hard story. Frontier Texas was not gentle.

The gravestones document a large number of infant and child deaths, and something darker still: apparent epidemics that took several members of individual families in what must have felt like terrible succession. That land had belonged to the Chisum family, and in 1886, Mary Chisum, widow of J. R.

Chisum, deeded the four-acre graveyard to the citizens living along Steele Creek. The cemetery started out known as Steele Creek Cemetery, and eventually it took on the Tidwell name, same as the community that built it. By the 1930s, burials had ceased.

The site was largely abandoned after that, left to the quiet company of all those stones. It stayed that way until the 1980s, when descendants of the Tidwell community formed an association and took on the work of maintaining the place. Some stories don't end so much as they find their way back.

This one did.

What the marker says

Settlement in this area along Steele Creek began in the 1850s. Known by several names over the years - including Steele Creek, Tidwell, Shady Grove and Pleasant Grove - the community centered around a Methodist church named for the Rev. David J. Tidwell (1802-1883) who settled here with his family in 1853. A post office was established in 1856 with David Tidwell as postmaster, and soon the settlement included two general stores, the church, homes and a school. Although burials in the community cemetery probably began earlier, the oldest documented grave here is that of Nancy Hogan, wife of J. M. Hogan, who died in February 1858. The cemetery includes about 175 marked graves, and an unknown number of unmarked ones. Inscriptions on the gravestones provide a testament to the sometimes harsh living conditions in frontier Texas and document a large number of infant and child deaths, as well as apparent epidemics that took the lives of several members of individual families. Located on land formerly owned by the Chisum family, the four-acre graveyard was deeded to the citizens living along Steele Creek by Mary Chisum, widow of J. R Chisum, in 1886. Initially known as Steele Creek Cemetery, it eventually took on the Tidwell name. Records indicate that burials ceased to occur here in the 1930s, and the site was largely abandoned until members of an association of Tidwell community descendants was formed in the 1980s to assume maintenance of the site. (2001)