Macune Cemetery
San Augustine, San Augustine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
By the time Texas became a republic in 1836, Nathaniel Hunt had settled in this area with his wife, Mary Elizabeth (White), and their children, including their oldest daughter Clarissa and her husband, John M. Neely. The Hunt and Neely families were active in the early settlement; Nathaniel Hunt served in a variety of public offices, including justice of the peace. His home also served as a mail stop on the San Augustine to Houston route. This burial ground began as the Hunt Cemetery. John Neely (d. 1845) was the first buried here, followed by his father-in-law four years later. As the community grew, other family members and neighbors were buried in the cemetery. The community's first post office opened in 1888. Area farmers active in the Southern Farmers' Alliance suggested it be named for leader Charles Macune. In 1926, John S. Henry donated adjacent land to the community to enlarge the Hunt Cemetery. Today, the burial ground continues to be used by area residents and descendants of settlers buried here. Graves include those of Edwin Oswald LeGrand, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and veterans of military conflicts dating to the War of 1812. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Nathaniel Hunt and his family had settled here by the time Texas became a republic in 1836, and his home doubled as a mail stop on the San Augustine–to–Houston route. The burial ground began as the Hunt Cemetery with John Neely's death in 1845, later taking the name Macune to honor Farmers' Alliance leader Charles Macune when the community's post office opened in 1888. Among its graves are Edwin Oswald LeGrand, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and veterans of conflicts reaching back to the War of 1812.
Why it matters
The cemetery binds together the founding of the Texas Republic, the mail routes of early settlement, and the agrarian Farmers' Alliance movement in a single East Texas burial ground.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Nathaniel Hunt settled his family in the piney woods of East Texas, the land around him was on the edge of becoming a nation. Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 and spent the next nine years as its own republic, and this corner of San Augustine County sat along one of the oldest travel corridors in the region — the route that carried settlers, soldiers, and mail between the older towns to the east and the growing settlements toward the coast.
This was frontier country, but not empty country. Families arrived in clusters, tied together by marriage and shared labor, and they built the institutions of a community more or less from scratch: courts, churches, roads, and post offices. A man who could read, keep records, and settle disputes was worth a great deal, and public office often fell to whoever was steady enough to hold it.
Over the decades that followed, the same ground would carry Texas through statehood, the upheavals of the mid-century, and the hard rural years of the late 1800s, when farmers across the South began organizing to fight low prices and heavy debts. A single country burial ground quietly absorbed all of it.
People & events
The story begins with Nathaniel Hunt, who had put down roots here with his wife, Mary Elizabeth, and their children by the time Texas became a republic. Their oldest daughter, Clarissa, married John M. Neely, and the Hunt and Neely families threw themselves into the work of early settlement. Nathaniel took on the ordinary but essential offices of a young community — including justice of the peace — and his home did double duty as a mail stop on the road between San Augustine and Houston, making his doorstep a small hinge of frontier communication.
The burial ground began, as so many did, with a death in the family. John Neely died in 1845 and was the first laid to rest here, in what was then simply the Hunt Cemetery. His father-in-law, Nathaniel, followed about four years later. As neighbors and kin were buried alongside them, the little plot grew into a community cemetery rather than a family one.
The name changed with the times. When the community's first post office opened in 1888, area farmers active in the Southern Farmers' Alliance proposed honoring the movement's leader, Charles Macune — and the name stuck. Decades later, in 1926, John S. Henry donated adjoining land so the cemetery could expand. Among the graves are those of Edwin Oswald LeGrand, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and veterans of conflicts reaching back to the War of 1812.
Its place in the American story
It is easy to think of American history as something that happened in capitals and on battlefields. A place like this reminds you that it also happened at kitchen tables and country crossroads. The presence of a Declaration signer's grave ties this quiet ground directly to the founding act of the Texas Republic — the moment a scattering of settlements chose to become a nation.
The cemetery's name carries a different and often overlooked chapter of the American story. The Southern Farmers' Alliance was one of the largest grassroots movements of the late nineteenth century, as farmers organized cooperatives and pressed for reforms to escape crushing debt and the mercy of distant markets. That rural families here felt strongly enough to name their community for Charles Macune shows how deeply that struggle reached into everyday life.
And the veterans buried here — from the War of 1812 forward — trace the long thread of ordinary citizens called to serve across generations. In one modest burial ground, the founding of a republic, the reach of the early postal roads, and a national farmers' movement all rest side by side.
If you visit
Come expecting quiet. A rural Texas cemetery like this rewards slow walking and close attention rather than grand monuments. Read the surnames as you go — you will see the same families recurring, the visible record of how a community was knit together by marriage and neighborly ties over more than a century.
Look for the oldest stones, which mark the founding generation, and remember that this ground began with a single family's loss before it became a shared place of memory. The mix of eras — early republic settlers, a signer of the Texas Declaration, and later veterans — means the cemetery reads almost like a timeline if you take it in stride by stride.
Set in the rolling, wooded landscape of San Augustine County, it fits naturally into a wandering East Texas road trip through some of the oldest Anglo-American settlements in the state. Treat it as a place to pause, take in the trees and the stillness, and consider how much national history can gather around one country crossroads. As with any active cemetery, walk gently and respectfully among the graves that descendants still tend today.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Nathaniel Hunt
- · Edwin Oswald LeGrand
- · Charles Macune
Related events
- · Texas Declaration of Independence
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Edward Oswald LeGrand
San Augustine, TX
Born in North Carolina in 1801, Edward Oswald LeGrand cast his lot with the Texas independence movement, adding his name to the Texas Declaration of Independence and fighting at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. He lived out his years in the new republic and later state, dying in 1870. The State of Texas placed this marker in 1936 during the centennial of independence to honor his role among the republic's founders.
Little Flock Cemetery
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By 1880 families named Erwin, Crocker, Zeagler, Woods, and Harvey were farming this part of San Augustine County, worshipping first under a brush arbor before raising a one-room log church they called "Little Flock." The cemetery began in 1883 with the burial of six-year-old Carrie Bell Hawkins, who died while visiting the Erwin home, and the Erwins formally donated land for church, school, and cemetery in 1914. More than 400 graves now rest here, including charter church members and veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam.
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