Jane Dotson Lively
Houston County, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(July 25, 1822 -- October 10, 1922) A native of Alabama, Jane Dotson Lively came to Houston County in 1850 with her husband Thomas Lively, for whom the surrounding community was named. An active leader of the settlement, she assisted in setting up a church and school on the family land. She was also known for her courage as a pioneer settler, her religious dedication and her influence in the development of Livelyville. Twice married, she was the mother of thirteen children.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Jane Dotson Lively came from Alabama to Houston County in 1850 with her husband Thomas, for whom the surrounding community of Livelyville was named. She helped establish a church and school on the family's land and was remembered as a courageous pioneer and community leader. Mother of thirteen and twice married, she lived to be one hundred, dying in 1922.
Why it matters
Her long life traces the founding of a Texas settlement from the ground up, and honors the pioneer women whose organizing work built the churches and schools that turned raw frontier into community.
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Related people
- · Jane Dotson Lively
- · Thomas Lively
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Livelyville Cemetery
Houston County, TX
South Carolina native Thomas Lively put down roots in Houston County in 1850, and the farming community that grew up around his land took the family name. In the late 1850s he set aside this ground as a burying place for his neighbors, and its oldest surviving headstones date to the 1880s. Though Lively himself died in Grayson County after the Civil War, his wife Jane later returned to be laid to rest here among the pioneers who had settled the area.
Davis Cemetery
Grapeland, TX
Established around 1862, this Houston County burial ground took root in the heart of the Civil War, when East Texas was a Confederate homefront far from the fighting but bound up in its losses. Set among the farms and pine woods of Grapeland, it reflects the settlement of the region by families who had pushed into East Texas in the antebellum decades. Its Historic Texas Cemetery designation preserves that link to the war years.
Joseph T. Bowman
Houston County, TX
Joseph T. Bowman came to Texas in 1835 as the son of Jesse B. Bowman, who would die defending the Alamo. That December he signed the Goliad Declaration of Independence calling for Texas to break free, and after the revolution he served in the army of the Republic of Texas. He settled with his family in the Houston County area around 1845.
Guiceland Cemetery
Houston County, TX
Guiceland Cemetery began about 1871 with the burial of the infant William Guice on family land, and it grew into the resting place of hundreds from the surrounding community. Its graves hold veterans of nearly every American conflict from the Texas Revolution through Vietnam, alongside the settlers who farmed this corner of Houston County. A one-room building here once doubled as school and funeral chapel, later joined by a community tabernacle.