Fort Graham Cemetery
Whitney, Hill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(3 miles northwest) Settlement in this area began shortly after Fort Graham, a frontier military post established here in 1849, was abandoned in 1853. The first recorded burial in this cemetery, named after the fort, was that of infant Charley Botkin in 1879. The cemetery was the only one of a number of historic graveyards in this area to remain undisturbed by the creation of Lake Whitney in the early 1950s. Among the more than 300 people buried here are many of the area's early settlers and their descendants. The cemetery remains active and is maintained by an association formed in 1966. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlement in this part of Hill County followed the 1849 founding of Fort Graham, a frontier military post abandoned in 1853. The cemetery that took the fort's name holds its first recorded burial in 1879 and, alone among the area's historic graveyards, escaped inundation when Lake Whitney was created in the early 1950s. More than 300 of the region's early settlers and their descendants rest here.
Why it matters
It is a rare undisturbed record of the frontier families who settled north-central Texas in the wake of its military outposts.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Huron
Whitney, TX
The U.S. Army's Fort Graham, established in 1849, drew settlers who stayed even after the post closed in 1853, and the Neal family's arrival by 1860 seeded the community of Elm Mott. The Neals donated land for a school, church, tabernacle, and lodge, while merchant Jehu Gist opened a store and secured a post office he named Huron for his youngest son. Though the school consolidated away in 1949, Cedar Creek Baptist Church still gathers area residents and the descendants of Huron's founding families.
Fort Graham
Whitney, TX
Fort Graham rose in March 1849 on the site of a Waco Indian village, one of a chain of frontier military posts the U.S. Army planted across Texas as Anglo settlement pushed westward. Established by Brevet Major R. A. Arnold of the Second Dragoons, it honored Lt. Col. William M. Graham, killed at Molino del Rey during the recent war with Mexico. The post was abandoned in 1853 as the frontier line moved farther west, and its barracks were later reconstructed in part from the original stone as a community gathering place.
Carver Homestead
Whitney, TX
This Hill County homestead traces an unusually complete arc of Texas settlement, beginning with an 1838 headright land grant to Mary Beacham and a two-room log cabin raised by Eliphas Spencer in 1845 under the wary protection of nearby Fort Graham. Passing through a line of determined women and the Carver family, the cabin was absorbed into a Victorian house in 1875 and finally crowned with a Neoclassical second story in 1912. Its surviving carriage house, smokehouse, and other outbuildings preserve the working texture of a frontier property that endured wars, droughts, and even a 1971 tornado.
Steiner Baptist Church
Lakeside Village, TX
Founded in 1891 as Fowler Baptist Church, this Bosque County congregation rebuilt after a 1907 fire and took the name Steiner when its town was renamed in 1916. Its most dramatic chapter came in 1950, when the creation of Lake Whitney forced the town of Steiner to evacuate and the church was hauled off on mule teams and wagons. Unable to clear a nearby bridge, the building simply stopped where it stood — and there it has remained at the roadside ever since.