Lee Cemetery
Roxton, Lamar County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Herbert J. Lee of Virginia moved to this area by 1859. One-year-old Georgiannia W. Derrick died in 1860 and was buried on the Lee property. Herbert Lee designated the land for a cemetery in his 1865 will. At some time after May 1908, two stones were erected bearing the names of George W. and William B. Derrick, who died in 1831. Whether or not the two pioneers are interred on this site remains unknow. Most graves are dated between 1870 and 1890. Money was tight during the Reconstruction era, which may explain the lack of ornate stones. An underground vault in the center of the graveyard filled with dirt and the markers within the vault deteriorated. At least one grave on this site it that of a citizen of The Republic of Texas. Others were veterans of the Civil War. The last burial took place in 1913. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This quiet country burial ground grew up around the 1860 grave of a one-year-old child on Herbert Lee's farm, and he set the land aside for a cemetery in his Civil War-era will. Most of those laid to rest here were buried between 1870 and 1890, in the lean years of Reconstruction when few could afford ornate stones. Among them rest a citizen of the Republic of Texas and veterans of the Civil War.
Why it matters
Pioneer cemeteries like this are ground-level records of frontier settlement, the Civil War generation, and the hard economics of the Reconstruction South.
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Related people
- · Herbert J. Lee
- · Georgiannia W. Derrick
Themes & tags
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