Burton B. Tarkington
Cleveland, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Burton B. Tarkington (1790-1861) and his wife Sarah Berry Tarkington migrated with their family from Indiana in the mid-1820s to the Mexican state of Coahuila. They settled west of the Trinity River in present northwest Liberty County, and began ranching and raising crops. The area around their farm became known as Tarkington's Prairie, and a creek in the area is called Tarkington Bayou. According to family legend, the Tarkingtons and other early settlers had to vacate their property in 1836 when Santa Anna's forces advanced prior to the Battle of San Jacinto. Apparently Tarkington did not have a land grant from the Mexican government for the land he claimed, but when Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836 he received a headright land grant of one league and one labor (4,605 acres). The grant was patented in 1847 by the new state of Texas and became known as the Tarkington Survey. Tarkington became a leader in the community. He served in the Texas Militia in 1842, and was elected Liberty County commissioner for three terms beginning in 1854. He received recognition for his service from Governor H. R. Runnels. Tarkington died Feb. 2, 1861, and is buried in the McGinnis Cemetery (.25 mi. W). (1996)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Burton B. Tarkington and his wife Sarah left Indiana in the mid-1820s for the Mexican state of Coahuila, settling west of the Trinity River and building a ranch and farm on land that came to bear their name. Family tradition holds they fled in 1836 as Santa Anna's army advanced toward San Jacinto. After independence, the new Republic granted Tarkington more than 4,600 acres, and he later served in the Texas Militia and as a county commissioner.
Why it matters
His life traces the arc of early Anglo settlement in Texas — from a Mexican land claim without title to a patented survey under a new state — and shows how frontier families became the backbone of local government.
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Related people
- · Burton B. Tarkington
- · Sarah Berry Tarkington
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
McGinnis Cemetery
Tarkington, TX
Established in 1861, McGinnis Cemetery began at the very outset of the Civil War, when the farming families of rural Liberty County were being drawn into the conflict that would reshape Texas. Frontier cemeteries of this era often gathered pioneer settlers and the war generation side by side. It carries a Historic Texas Cemetery designation.
Rural Shade Baptist Church
Cleveland, TX
At least fourteen charter members founded this church in the Tarkington's Prairie community around 1870, and in 1878 raised a two-story building that shared its purpose: a Baptist congregation below and a Masonic lodge above, with many members belonging to both. Early pastors, elected from the congregation, preached once or twice a month, often on Saturdays, and hosted the revivals then known as "meeting of days." The church long held the nearby Ryan Cemetery, deeded to it in 1908, until passing it to a cemetery association in 1989.
Andrew Jackson Isaacks
Cleveland, TX
Born in Mississippi in 1817, Andrew Jackson Isaacks came to Texas and fought in the Texas Revolution in 1835 before settling into the civic life of a young frontier region. He served as sheriff of Jasper County, raised a large family, farmed and ranched, and became the first postmaster at Tarkington Prairie in the 1850s. Buried where he died in 1864, his remains were reinterred at this site in 1970.
Oak Shade Cemetery
Cleveland, TX
Founded in 1845, the year Texas was annexed to the United States, Oak Shade Cemetery served the pioneer families settling the piney woods of Liberty County. Such burial grounds were often among the first permanent community institutions on the Texas frontier. It holds a Historic Texas Cemetery designation.