Dalys/Dailey Community Cemetery
Houston County, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The pioneer Daily family and others founded the Dalys Community in the 1850s. When Ethalinda Meriwether, wife of Dr. Francis Lewis Meriwether, died in 1876, Charles B. Dailey and his sister and brother-in-law, Emma Catherine and James A. Hill, gave land for a community cemetery. In addition to the families of the Dalys/Dailey Community, the cemetery also served residents of nearby Reynard. Those interred here include veterans of the Civil War, World War I and World War II. The name was officially changed to Dailey Community Cemetery in 1981.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Daily family and their neighbors founded the Dalys Community in the 1850s, and when Ethalinda Meriwether died in 1876 the Dailey and Hill families donated ground for a burial place. The cemetery served both this settlement and nearby Reynard, gathering generations of East Texas farm families into one hillside. Among its graves lie veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars, and in 1981 the name was formally fixed as Dailey Community Cemetery.
Why it matters
A rural cemetery like this is a pioneer community's most durable record, preserving the names and service of ordinary families long after the settlement around it has faded.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Charles B. Dailey
- · Ethalinda Meriwether
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Parker Cemetery
Grapeland, TX
Willis Parker migrated from North Carolina to this part of Texas in the 1850s, drawing kin behind him, and his death around 1857 prompted his parents to set aside family land as a burial ground. The oldest surviving tombstone belongs to his father, dating to 1861. Among the more than four hundred marked and unmarked graves rest members of the Parker and allied families, including veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars.
Joseph Randolph Yarbrough
Grapeland, TX
A native of Louisiana, Joseph Randolph Yarbrough served in the Texas War for Independence, standing guard at the camp opposite Harrisburg during the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. He and his father signed the 1837 petition that created Houston County, and after marrying Phebe Clementine Crawford in 1840, he settled near Grapeland and raised a family of eleven children. His life traces the arc from revolutionary soldier to founding settler.
Dickerson Parker
Elkhart, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1812, Dickerson Parker fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive 1836 clash that won Texas its independence, before his death in 1844. His wife, Lucinda Eaton Parker, is remembered with him. Both were part of the earliest Anglo settlement of Anderson County.
Miles Bennett
Elkhart, TX
Miles Bennett came from Indiana to the fledgling Republic of Texas and took up arms in the Army of Texas in 1836, the year Texans won their independence at San Jacinto. He died young in 1849, but his widow Laura outlived him by more than seventy years, a common frontier story of short-lived soldiers and long-widowed wives. Markers like this one preserve the names of the ordinary men who filled the ranks during Texas's fight for nationhood.