Maxey Cemetery
Briarcliff, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Between 1855-1859, James Edward Maxey (1831-1908) moved from Arkansas to Bosque Co., Texas, with his mother, two sons and a daughter. During the Civil War James was a private in the frontier militia. By 1870, he moved his family to western Travis Co. near where the Pedernales River joins the Colorado. James’ three-year-old grandson, Alfred Maxey, died from a poisonous snake bite in 1873. On a shaded knoll on Walter Lee Maxey’s land, his was the first burial in Maxey (or Pleasant Grove) Cemetery. James was the first postmaster of the Mud post office in 1887. The nearby Pleasant Grove School operated until 1917, and the post office closed in 1934. James and ten family members are at rest here, along with two friends. The last burial dates from 1969. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James Edward Maxey brought his family from Arkansas to Texas in the 1850s, eventually settling in western Travis County where the Pedernales meets the Colorado. The cemetery began in grief: his three-year-old grandson Alfred died of a snakebite in 1873 and was laid to rest on a shaded knoll, the first of the family burials. Maxey later served as the first postmaster of the nearby 'Mud' post office, and the little community he helped anchor faded as its school and post office closed in the early twentieth century.
Why it matters
Small family cemeteries like this map the quiet spread of Anglo settlement across the Texas Hill Country, where a single family's graves outlasted the vanished hamlet around them.
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Related people
- · James Edward Maxey
Themes & tags
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