Clark-Dickey and Smith Cemeteries
Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
William and Mahala Graham Clark settled in the Big Sandy Creek area before 1837. William died in 1856 and his is the oldest marked grave in the Clark-Dickey Cemetery. It is believed that earlier pioneers camped near here and buried their dead in unmarked graves. In 1850 Obediah Jackson Smith and Elizabeth Chapman bought land from William F. Clark. Obediah died in 1868; his is the only marked grave in the Smith Cemetery. It is likely that family members are also buried nearby. These two cemeteries are the last physical remnants of the Big Sandy Creek community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Before Texas was even a decade into its own republic, William and Mahala Clark carved a homestead out of the Big Sandy Creek country of the East Texas piney woods. Their family plot became the resting place of pioneers whose names time has mostly erased—earlier travelers are thought to lie here in unmarked graves. Alongside the neighboring Smith burying ground, these quiet cemeteries are the last tangible trace of a frontier farming community that has otherwise vanished.
Why it matters
Pioneer cemeteries like these are often the only surviving evidence of the small settlements that knit together the American frontier, preserving the memory of ordinary families who built lives on the edge of a young nation.
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Related people
- · William Clark
- · Mahala Graham Clark
- · Obediah Jackson Smith
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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