Buckner Cemetery
Pinehill, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
John S. Buckner (1806-1870), his wife, Mariah T. (d. 1874), and their two sons, Arthur Washington (1828-1894) and Mumford Jackson (1831-1872), traveled from Georgia and settled in this area before 1850. As the family and community grew, this site was set aside as a burial ground. John was one of the first to be laid to rest here in 1870. Both Buckner sons served the Confederacy during the Civil War. Mumford enlisted in Johnson's Brigade, 1st Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers, and later served in the Texas Cavalry. Arthur was part of Company C, 1st Texas Infantry and was at Appomattox, Va., on April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered. He returned to his business in Pinehill where he ran a sawmill with his father, as well as a general store and cotton gin. One of his daughters, May Buckner Hillin (1869-1966), is remembered for her response to an 1892 incident in which a man was stabbed at a local drugstore that secretly sold whiskey. She led the women of Pinehill to the site, where they broke up the whiskey containers with axes. The Buckner Cemetery chronicles these pioneers, veterans and generations that have contributed to the development of the Pinehill area or Rusk County. A trust fund created in 1974 provides for its upkeep. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John S. Buckner brought his family from Georgia to settle this Rusk County area before 1850, and was among the first laid to rest in the family burial ground in 1870. Both his sons served the Confederacy — Arthur Washington Buckner was at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered, then returned to run a sawmill, store, and cotton gin at Pinehill. His daughter May Buckner Hillin later led the women of Pinehill to smash the whiskey containers of a drugstore after an 1892 stabbing, an axe-wielding echo of the temperance crusade.
Why it matters
The Buckner graves compress a whole arc of the nineteenth-century South — frontier migration, Confederate service, and the women's temperance movement — into a single family plot.
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Related people
- · John S. Buckner
- · Arthur Washington Buckner
- · Mumford Jackson Buckner
- · May Buckner Hillin
Related events
- · Surrender at Appomattox
Themes & tags
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