Denson Homesite and Cemetery
Grapeland vicinity, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(0.7 mi. S) Near this site is evidence of the 19th-century home and burial ground used by the family of John and Mary Ann Denson. John Denson (1815 - c.1861) arrived in this area in 1835 with his parents, Thomas C. and Polly Denson who were Predestination Baptists with Elder Daniel Parker. In 1837 John signed the petition calling for the creation of Houston County. In 1839 he married Mary Ann (Crawford) Houston (1817 - c. 1874), whose first husband was a relative of Sam Houston, according to family tradition. They reared their children in a log house on the banks of Bennett Creek. As family members died, they were buried near the homesite. The last burials took place in 1890. Family records identify 18 burials in the pioneer cemetery. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Denson arrived in this area in 1835 with his parents, hardshell Predestination Baptists who had traveled with the noted frontier preacher Elder Daniel Parker. In 1837 John added his name to the petition that created Houston County, and he raised his family in a log house on Bennett Creek beside his wife, whose first husband was said to be kin to Sam Houston. As relatives died they were buried near the home, with the last of some eighteen graves filled in 1890.
Why it matters
The homesite and its small burial ground trace the earliest Anglo settlement of the region, from the founding of the county to the pioneer families who first worked its creek-bottom land.
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Related people
- · John Denson
- · Mary Ann Crawford Houston
- · Thomas C. Denson
- · Daniel Parker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Davis Cemetery
Grapeland, TX
Established around 1862, this Houston County burial ground took root in the heart of the Civil War, when East Texas was a Confederate homefront far from the fighting but bound up in its losses. Set among the farms and pine woods of Grapeland, it reflects the settlement of the region by families who had pushed into East Texas in the antebellum decades. Its Historic Texas Cemetery designation preserves that link to the war years.
Denson Cemetery
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Joseph Denson came to Texas from Alabama in the 1830s among the Predestination Baptists who followed Elder Daniel Parker to Houston County. Around 1851 he married Caroline Houston, a niece of Sam Houston, and the couple raised eleven children on their farm. From that land he set aside a burial ground, becoming its first marked interment, and the family still gathers there for an annual homecoming.
Refuge Cemetery
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Reuben and Sarah Brown left Illinois to settle here in 1833, and their son John lived his whole long life within a mile of his birthplace at Old Fort Brown. In 1865 John deeded two acres for a church and school, on a site his mother-in-law had already chosen and named 'Refuge' as the family's resting place. Another acre followed in 1889, and a cemetery association tends the ground today.
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