Bolton Cemetery
Pittsburg, Camp County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Ebenezer (Ebb) and Martha Bolton settled in this area in the 1850s. They established an extensive plantation and owned a number of slaves before the Civil War. Following Ebb Bolton's death in 1877, his widow made arrangements to provide land to their former slaves. This cemetery, which began in 1861 upon the death of Martha Bolton's mother, Rebecca Durley, became a part of the Bolton community, a Freedmen's town which built up in the area. Both Ebb and Martha Bolton are interred here, as are many of the former slaves and their descendants.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1850s Ebenezer "Ebb" and Martha Bolton built a large East Texas plantation worked by enslaved people. After emancipation and Ebb's death in 1877, Martha set aside land for their former slaves, and a Freedmen's community called Bolton grew up around it. The cemetery, begun in 1861, holds the Boltons alongside generations of the freed families and their descendants who made new lives here.
Why it matters
Freedmen's settlements like Bolton were where formerly enslaved Americans built landowning communities of their own after the Civil War, and their cemeteries are among the few surviving records of that fragile, hard-won independence.
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Related people
- · Ebenezer "Ebb" Bolton
- · Martha Bolton
- · Rebecca Durley
Themes & tags
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