Cotton Gin Cemetery
Teague, Freestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Margarette Wills, her slaves and her son James S. Wills came to this area in 1845. Dr. James S. Wills is credited with the establishment of the Cotton Gin community in 1848. According to family history, Dr. Wills gave the land for a public cemetery with separate sections for Anglo and African Americans. Though it is likely that there were earlier burials, the oldest legible gravestone in the Anglo section is that of Mary Manning, who died in 1854 at 59. The next identifiable death date is that of an infant daughter of J. W. and A. A. Story, buried in 1858. Among the military veterans interred here is Abraham Roland (ca. 1794-1868), who fought in the War of 1812. There are at least 67 Civil War veterans interred here, as well as veterans of other major conflicts. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Wills family settled here in 1845, and Dr. James S. Wills is credited with founding the Cotton Gin community in 1848, donating land for a public cemetery divided — as the era demanded — into Anglo and African American sections. The oldest legible stone dates to 1854, but the ground holds a deeper record of frontier Texas: a veteran of the War of 1812, at least 67 Civil War soldiers, and veterans of later conflicts lie here among the settlers and the enslaved people who worked the land.
Why it matters
A single country burial ground preserves in one place the enslaved, the settlers, and the soldiers of multiple American wars, and the hard color line that ordered even death in 19th-century Texas.
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Related people
- · James S. Wills
- · Abraham Roland
- · Margarette Wills
Themes & tags
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