Bounds-Estes Cemetery
Shelbyville, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
BOUNDS-ESTES CEMETERY LOCATED ALMOST EXACTLY BETWEEN THE TOWNS OF SHELBYVILLE AND CENTER ON COUNTY ROAD 1006, THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY IS THE RESTING PLACE FOR THE BOUNDS FAMILY AND THE ESTES GRANDCHILDREN AND NEIGHBORS. FRANCIS BIRD BOUNDS, JR. MOVED HERE FROM TENNESSEE WITH HIS FAMILY AND SISTERS IN 1845. WILLIAM ECHOLS WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO BE LAID TO REST HERE IN 1855 AND THE CEMETERY’S LAST BURIAL WAS THAT OF MARY L. CARROLL BOUNDS IN 1900. THE CEMETERY IS LOCATED IN A DENSELY WOODED AREA AND SITS ON A PROMONTORY BLUFF OVERLOOKING A SMALL CREEK WHICH FEEDS INTO MILL CREEK. IN 2010, THE BOUNDS-ESTES CEMETERY ASSOCIATION WAS FORMED TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE AND RESTORE FENCES AND GRAVESTONES.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Tucked on a wooded bluff above a creek between Shelbyville and Center, this burial ground served the family and neighbors of Francis Bird Bounds, Jr., who moved from Tennessee in 1845. The first grave was that of William Echols in 1855 and the last a Bounds descendant in 1900, making it a compact record of one pioneer clan's half-century in East Texas. A cemetery association formed in 2010 to restore its fences and stones.
Why it matters
Small family graveyards like Bounds-Estes are the quiet ledgers of frontier settlement, marking where a single migrating family put down roots in antebellum Texas.
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Related people
- · Francis Bird Bounds, Jr.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The First Battle
Center, TX
This marks the vicinity of the first clash in the Regulator-Moderator War, a bitter feud that convulsed Shelby County from 1841 to 1844 in the days of the Republic of Texas. What began as a quarrel between rival factions escalated into an unorganized war of ambush and reprisal, ending only when General James Smith led Texas forces in to restore order in August 1844—reportedly without firing a gun.
Mull Cemetery
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Brothers James Allen and John M. Mull brought their families from Alabama to Shelby County in 1894, only to lose John's wife Mary to smallpox two years later. Fear of contagion barred her from the city cemetery, so a neighbor offered a burial spot on his land along the San Augustine road, and in 1901 John Mull bought the ground and organized what became Mull Cemetery. The family and at least ten relatives lie here, a small graveyard the city of Center has maintained since 1956.
Fairview Cemetery
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Shelby County
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Shelby County lay in the old "Neutral Ground," a long-disputed no-man's-land where law was thin, and between 1841 and 1844 it erupted into the Regulator-Moderator War—a violent, unorganized feud that cost many lives and much property. The turmoil grew so severe that President Sam Houston ordered General James Smith and Republic of Texas troops to intervene. Remarkably, Smith restored order and ended the uprising without firing a single shot.