Hart Mill Cemetery
Woodville, Tyler County, Texas
Marker Inscription
THIS CEMETERY IS NAMED FOR A MILL THAT OPERATED ON NEARBY SUTTON LAKE, ALONG MAGNUS BRANCH. THE MILL WAS RUN FIRST BY ORIGINAL PATENTEE L.G. McGAUGHEY AND LATER BY RICHARD JEFFERSON HART; HART IS BURIED AT THE CEMETERY ALONG WITH SEVERAL OF HIS CHILDREN. THE BARCLAY FAMILY WAS ONE OF THE EARLIEST ANGLO FAMILIES TO SETTLE IN WHAT IS NOW TYLER COUNTY, ARRIVING IN 1836. JAMES WALTER BARCLAY OWNED LAND NEARBY AND SERVED IN THE TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AS TYLER COUNTY TAX ASSESSOR, SHERIFF AND CHIEF JUSTICE, AND WAS ALSO APPOINTED AS AN AGENT FOR THE ALABAMA, COUSHATTA AND PAKANA MUSKOGEE INDIANS. JAMES’ FATHER, WALTER BARCLAY, IS THE FIRST KNOWN BURIAL IN HART MILL CEMETERY (ALSO KNOWN AS HART-MILL CEMETERY) IN 1857; JAMES WALTER, HIS WIFE VIRGINIA AND THEIR DESCENDANTS ARE ALSO BURIED HERE. EARLY SETTLER JOHN BEVIL AND SEVERAL OF HIS DESCENDANTS ARE BURIED AT THE SITE. BEVIL FIRST SETTLED IN JASPER COUNTY IN THE 1820s, WHERE HE FOUNDED THE RIVERSIDE COMMUNITIES OF BEVIL SETTLEMENT AND BEVILPORT AND SERVED AS A DELEGATE TO THE CONSULATION OF 1835 IN SAN FELIPE. ALSO INTERRED HERE ARE MEMBERS OF THE BULLOCK, BEATY, KINCAID, GEORGE, BOYD, RISINGER, ANDERSON, LIDDON, BOWDON, GRAVES AND WILLIAMSON FAMILIES. IN 1929, JOHN RANDOLPH BEVIL AND MARTHA (HART) BEVIL DEEDED 2.95 ACRES TO OFFICIALLY ESTABLISH A CEMETERY AT THE SITE. THE DEED ALSO PROVIDED FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A BOARD OF TRUSTEES TO CARE FOR THE BURIAL GROUND AND GAVE DIRECTIVES FOR AN ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING. TODAY, HART MILL CEMETERY CONTINUES TO BE CARED FOR BY DESCENDANTS OF THOSE EARLY PIONEERS INTERRED HERE.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This East Texas burial ground grew up around a water-powered mill on Sutton Lake and became the resting place of some of Tyler County's earliest Anglo pioneers. Families like the Barclays and Bevils arrived as Texas moved from a Mexican province to an independent republic in 1836, and their leaders helped organize the young county's government and courts, with John Bevil even serving as a delegate to the 1835 Consultation that set the Revolution in motion. James Walter Barclay's role as agent to the Alabama, Coushatta, and Pakana Muskogee peoples marks the uneasy meeting of settlers and Native nations on this frontier. In 1929 descendants formally deeded the ground as a community cemetery, and their families tend it still.
Why it matters
Pioneer cemeteries like this one are among the most durable records of how families settled and governed the Texas frontier in the Republic era, preserving the names behind a county's founding generation.
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Related people
- · Richard Jefferson Hart
- · James Walter Barclay
- · Walter Barclay
- · John Bevil
Related events
- · Consultation of 1835
Themes & tags
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