Flewellen-Thweatt Cemetery
Lindale vicinity, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The family of Thomas and Frances Maria Drake Flewellen came to Texas from Georgia and Arkansas in the 1850s. In 1859 Thomas Flewellen purchased 1,426 acres of rich farmland on which he established his home and a large farm. When Frances Maria died in 1861 she was buried near the family home, the first burial in what became the Flewellen-Thweatt cemetery. Three of the Flewellens' nine surviving children married members of the Thweatt family. The Flewellens and the Thweatts engaged in farming activities, using slave labor until after the Civil War. Many of the Flewellen slaves and their descendants are buried in the nearby Fluellen/Flewellen cemetery. The Flewellen-Thweatt cemetery is a reminder of the hardships faced in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as 20 of the burials are for children and women under 40 years of age. Others buried here include Thomas Flewellen (d. 1889) and other members of his extended family. In 1919 Thomas and Frances Maria's daughter, Mary Margaret Flewellen Hill, deeded this property as a cemetery for the lineal descendants of Thomas Flewellen, and it continues in use for that purpose. As the resting place for members of two prominent pioneer families, who were joined through marriage and are representative of Smith County's plantation culture, the Flewellen-Thweatt cemetery is a physical reminder of this part of Smith County's history. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Thomas and Frances Maria Flewellen came to east Texas from Georgia and Arkansas in the 1850s, they bought well over a thousand acres and built a large farm worked by enslaved people. Frances Maria's 1861 burial began this family cemetery, which grew as the Flewellen and Thweatt families intermarried and buried their dead here across the plantation era and beyond. The many graves of women and children under 40 quietly record how hard life could be in 19th-century Smith County.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the human record of the antebellum plantation South in Texas—both the pioneer planter families and, in a separate nearby burial ground, the enslaved people whose labor sustained them.
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Related people
- · Thomas Flewellen
- · Frances Maria Drake Flewellen
- · Mary Margaret Flewellen Hill
Themes & tags
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