Ewing Chapel Cemetery
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in a quiet, rural area of southern Harrison County, the Ewing Chapel Cemetery is the final resting place for many early settlers of the mid-19th century. The cemetery was established when the Ewing Chapel Cumberland Presbyterian Church officially organized in January 1855. Despite the date of the deed, the earliest confirmed burial in the cemetery is from July 1853 with more unmarked burials beside the church site, possibly belonging to members of the Collier, Craig or Wilder families. Other early settlers represented among the burials are members of the McClaran, Ellis, Hall, Stauts and McCarty families. Burials also include at least fourteen men who assembled for volunteer units during the Civil War and their descendants. Also buried here are prominent early medical doctors: James M. Key and Dr. George Dixon Mahon. The cemetery is also the final resting place for the area’s first school teachers, Thomas Hatley Craig and Beatrice Ellis Lloyd, and many other early pioneers, businessmen and local leaders. By 1900, the Ewing Chapel building was utilized as a funeral chapel for services as most of the congregation moved to urban areas. However, annual reunion days held at the cemetery between the 1870s and the 1940s brought descendants back to honor their ancestors. A cemetery association, created in 1991, assisted in maintaining the cemetery until the early 21st century. It is now maintained by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Marshall. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In a quiet corner of southern Harrison County, this cemetery took shape when the Ewing Chapel Cumberland Presbyterian Church organized in January 1855, though its earliest confirmed burial dates to 1853. It holds many of the area's first settlers, at least fourteen men who formed volunteer units during the Civil War, early physicians, and the community's first schoolteachers. Annual reunion days drew descendants back to honor their ancestors from the 1870s into the 1940s.
Why it matters
It preserves the founding families, doctors, and teachers of a mid-19th-century East Texas settlement and the tradition of reunion that kept their memory alive.
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Related people
- · James M. Key
- · George Dixon Mahon
- · Thomas Hatley Craig
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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