Clarksville Cemetery
Clarksville, Red River County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial site was first used in the 1830s for the family of James Clark, the founder of Clarksville, who is interred here. The earliest grave is that of his father Benjamin Clark, a veteran of the American Revolution. Other graves include those of Albert Hamilton Latimer, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, the noted Texas journalist Col. Charles DeMorse and the Rev. John Anderson, a pioneer area preacher and educator. Known for many years as the Baptist Cemetery, the Clarksville Cemetery serves as a reminder of the town's early settlers and civic leaders.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James Clark, founder of Clarksville, began this burial ground in the 1830s, and it holds his father Benjamin, a Revolutionary War veteran whose grave is the earliest here. Among the others laid to rest are Albert Hamilton Latimer, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, the pioneering newspaperman Col. Charles DeMorse, and the early preacher-educator Rev. John Anderson. Long known as the Baptist Cemetery, it gathers the founding generation of one of northeast Texas's oldest towns.
Why it matters
With a Revolutionary War soldier resting beside a signer of Texas independence, the cemetery physically links the birth of the United States to the birth of the Texas republic in a single generation of settlers.
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Related people
- · James Clark
- · Benjamin Clark
- · Albert Hamilton Latimer
- · Col. Charles DeMorse
- · Rev. John Anderson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
James Clark
Clarksville, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1789, James Clark settled in Northeast Texas and founded the town of Clarksville, which bears his name. He died there in 1838, in the early years of the Republic of Texas.
First Presbyterian Church of Clarksville
Clarksville, TX
This Presbyterian congregation traces its roots to Old Shiloh in 1833, when Anglo settlers were streaming into what was then Mexican Texas, and relocated to Clarksville in 1858. The present church building went up in 1905. It stands among the oldest congregations in Red River County, a corner of Texas settled early via the routes down from the north and east.
David G. Burnet
Clarksville, TX
Born in New Jersey in 1788, David Gouverneur Burnet became a leading figure in Texas's fight for nationhood. He served as a convention delegate and judge before becoming interim president of the Republic of Texas from March to October 1836, in the tumultuous months surrounding independence. He later served as vice president and secretary of state of the young republic.
The Rev. William Stevenson
Clarksville, TX
A Methodist circuit rider in the Missouri Conference, William Stevenson crossed into the Red River country in 1815 and preached to the Claiborne Wright family and their neighbors — sermons remembered as the first Protestant worship ever held in Texas, then part of Catholic New Spain. A friend of empresario Stephen F. Austin, Stevenson helped plant the seed of religious pluralism on the frontier decades before Texas independence.