Dickerson Parker

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.

Elkhart, TX

Shaded by oak, pine, and crepe myrtle, this Elkhart burial ground took its first grave in 1887 but was not formally established until the Fuller family donated two acres in 1906. Among those resting here is E.V. Douthit — Civil War veteran, town postmaster, and co-owner of Elkhart's first store — alongside veterans of every American conflict from the Civil War to Desert Storm. A cemetery association organized in 1962 has cared for the grounds ever since.

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.

Houston County, TX

Guiceland Cemetery began about 1871 with the burial of the infant William Guice on family land, and it grew into the resting place of hundreds from the surrounding community. Its graves hold veterans of nearly every American conflict from the Texas Revolution through Vietnam, alongside the settlers who farmed this corner of Houston County. A one-room building here once doubled as school and funeral chapel, later joined by a community tabernacle.