Haley Bush Cemetery
San Augustine, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
HALEY BUSH CEMETERY THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY IS LOCATED ON THE SAN AUGUSTINE AND SHELBY COUNTY LINE. THE REGION IN THE VICINITY OF THE HALEY BUSH CEMETERY WAS FIRST SETTLED BY PIONEERS AS EARLY AS 1812, ALTHOUGH MOST ARRIVED IN THE 1830s. THE LAND FOR THE CEMETERY WAS DONATED IN 1889 BY HALEY BLOUNT BUSH FROM A 160-ACRE TRACT GRANTED TO HER HUSBAND, JOHN BUSH. HALEY BLOUNT WAS BORN INTO SLAVERY IN PRECINCT 2 OF SHELBY COUNTY SOMETIME FROM 1861 TO 1866 TO GEORGE AND MANDA BLOUNT. HALEY’S FATHER, GEORGE BLOUNT, WAS BORN IN KENTUCKY IN 1833 AND HER MOTHER, MANDA, WAS BORN IN TEXAS AROUND 1837. GEORGE REMARRIED PAULINE (POLLY) JONES IN 1874 AFTER MANDA DIED. ANOTHER PROMINENT BURIAL IS THAT OF ISOM BIGGERS, A WELL-KNOWN AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL WAR VETERAN FROM THIS AREA. THE TWO MEN WHO VERIFIED BIGGERS’ SERVICE, FAYETE McWILLIAMS AND LEWIS GRACE, ARE THOUGHT TO BE BURIED IN HALEY BUSH CEMETERY. FAMILY NAMES OF INDIVIDUALS BURIED HERE ARE DAVIS, FIELDS, JACKSON, JONES, KELLY, LANE, LIGON, MATLOCK, NETHERLY, REDMON AND WADE. SEVERAL OF THE KNOWN BURIALS ARE PERSONS BORN INTO SLAVERY IN TEXAS OR BROUGHT BY EARLY PIONEERS THAT SETTLED IN THIS REGION. THE CEMETERY HAS OVER 300 MARKED BURIALS AND POSSIBLY 70 TO 90 UNMARKED GRAVES. THE EARLIEST MARKED BURIAL IS THAT OF ELLEN JONES BIGGERS (1855-1881), THE FIRST WIFE OF ISOM BIGGERS. THE CEMETERY IS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR VETERANS FROM THE CIVIL WAR, WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II, THE KOREAN WAR, AND THE VIETNAM WAR. GRAVE MARKERS VARY FROM CONCRETE, FIELDSTONE, GRANITE, LIMESTONE, MARBLE AND SANDSTONE. THIS HISTORIC BURIAL GROUND IS CARED FOR BY THE HALEY BUSH CEMETERY ASSOCIATION. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Haley Blount Bush, born into slavery in Shelby County in the 1860s, donated land in 1889 from her husband's grant to create this cemetery on the San Augustine county line. Among its 300-plus marked graves is Isom Biggers, a well-known African American Civil War veteran whose service was vouched for by neighbors also thought to rest here. The burial ground holds many people born into slavery and veterans of every war from the Civil War through Vietnam, cared for today by a cemetery association.
Why it matters
Haley Bush Cemetery is a rare and powerful record of an African American community's founders—people who moved from bondage to landownership and military service across the generations.
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Related people
- · Haley Blount Bush
- · Isom Biggers
- · John Bush
Themes & tags
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