Bonner Cemetery
Burkeville, Newton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Thomas Bonner (1833-1891) moved from Mississippi to Texas in the early 1850s. He married Eliza Jane Rutledge (d.1910) in 1855 and settled on the banks of the Sabine River. They became the parents of 13 children. The first recorded burial in this family cemetery is that of infant Lenora J. Bonner in 1861. The site contains eight graves. The Temple Inland Company purchased land including this graveyard in 1926. The cemetery is maintained by descendants of the Bonner family. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Thomas Bonner moved from Mississippi to Texas in the early 1850s, married Eliza Jane Rutledge in 1855, and settled his large family on the banks of the Sabine River. The family graveyard's first recorded burial came in 1861, that of the infant Lenora J. Bonner, and eight graves rest here in all. Though the surrounding land was sold to a timber company in 1926, Bonner descendants have continued to tend the little cemetery.
Why it matters
The Bonner graveyard preserves the memory of a mid-century pioneer family and the persistence of descendants who keep a small piece of the East Texas frontier from being forgotten.
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Related people
- · Thomas Bonner
- · Eliza Jane Rutledge
Themes & tags
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