Cox Cemetery
Canton, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Robert K. Gibbs and his family settled in this area in the early 1850s. A gravestone for an infant daughter of R. K. and Sarah Gibbs reveals the earliest documented burial in this cemetery to be November 1853. Robert Daniel Cox (1842--1898) acquired the land in 1880. He offered the small Gibbs family graveyard for use as a community cemetery. It became known as Cox Graveyard or Cox Cemetery. Land additions in 1920 and 1933 enlarged the cemetery. Some unmarked graves are believed to be those of slaves. Five generations of Cox family members are interred here. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Robert K. Gibbs and his family settled this Van Zandt County land in the early 1850s, and the earliest documented grave — an infant Gibbs daughter — dates to 1853. When Robert Daniel Cox acquired the property in 1880, he opened the small family plot as a community cemetery, which grew through later land additions. Some of the unmarked graves are believed to hold enslaved people, and five generations of the Cox family rest here.
Why it matters
A rural burial ground like this quietly records both the free and enslaved lives that built a frontier Texas community, and the passing of five generations across it.
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Related people
- · Robert K. Gibbs
- · Robert Daniel Cox
Themes & tags
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