Buena Vista Cemetery
Timpson, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery serves the Buena Vista community, which organized in 1848. Joseph Penn Burns, a native of South Carolina, donated land for the burial ground. The earliest marked grave dates to 1851, though it is believed there is at least one earlier burial, that of Burns' wife, Mary Elizabeth (Richards) (d. 1843). Several prominent businessmen from the settlement's early years are also interred here, as are veterans from conflicts dating to the War of 1812. The Buena Vista Cemetery Association Perpetual Care Fund formed in 1986 to maintain the burial ground. Though the town declined in the 1880s when a nearby rail line established Timpson, the cemetery remains a landmark of the Buena Vista community. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground has served the Buena Vista community since it organized in 1848, on land donated by South Carolina native Joseph Penn Burns. Its earliest marked grave dates to 1851, and those interred include early merchants and veterans of conflicts reaching back to the War of 1812. When the railroad bypassed Buena Vista in the 1880s and the town faded, the cemetery endured as the community's lasting landmark.
Why it matters
A quiet record of an East Texas settlement that rose and declined with the railroad, the cemetery preserves the memory of pioneers and veterans who shaped the antebellum frontier.
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Related people
- · Joseph Penn Burns
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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