Greenwood Cemetery
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Dedicated 1881) Originated 1840 as private burial ground, Van Zandt family. Resting place, many early Texas leaders and patriots: Isaac Van Zandt (1813-47), came to Marshall in 1839. County named in his honor. James Harper Starr (1809-90), land commissioner, banker, land agent, county named for him. Matthew Duncan Ector (1822-79), brigadier general CSA, lawyer, county named for him. Alexander Travis Hawthorne (1825-99), brigadier general CSA, lawyer, businessman, minister. Charles Raguet Bringhurst (1880-82), grandson of Sam Houston. 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Begun in 1840 as the private burial ground of the Van Zandt family and formally dedicated in 1881, Greenwood Cemetery holds many of early East Texas's founding figures. Among them are Isaac Van Zandt and James Harper Starr, each honored with a Texas county named for him, and Confederate brigadier generals Matthew Duncan Ector and Alexander Travis Hawthorne. Even a grandson of Sam Houston rests here, tying the ground to the first generation of the Texas Republic.
Why it matters
In a single plot of Marshall soil lie the statesmen, land agents, and soldiers who built the Republic and state of Texas, making the cemetery a compact roll call of the region's formative leaders.
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Related people
- · Isaac Van Zandt
- · James Harper Starr
- · Matthew Duncan Ector
- · Alexander Travis Hawthorne
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Matthew Duncan Ector
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This state marker honors Matthew Duncan Ector, a Texas lawyer and legislator who rose to brigadier general in the Confederate army. He led troops through some of the war's hardest fighting in the Western Theater — Richmond in Kentucky, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and the Atlanta Campaign — before helping defend Mobile. Texas erected the memorial in 1962, a century after the conflict that defined his public life.
Van Zandt Hill
Marshall, TX
Isaac Van Zandt was one of the young Republic of Texas's most capable men — a lawyer, legislator, and diplomat who served as chargé d'affaires to the United States during the delicate years before annexation. His campaign for governor was cut short in 1847 when yellow fever killed him, and he was buried in the family plot on this Marshall hilltop. Decades later the land became the campus of the College of Marshall, which grew into East Texas Baptist College.