Mays Cemetery
Henderson, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This pioneer burial ground served the New Salem Community. In the 1850s, the settlement had a stagecoach stop, post office and the New Salem Academy. The Mays and Swink families of Madison Co., Tennessee were among the early settlers. John Mandeville Mays owned the land where the cemetery was established, sited between Quinn Mountain and the Angelina River. Tradition states that two slaves were the first to be buried here. Two-year-old Mary S. C. Swink died in 1856, and hers is the oldest marked grave. Among the burials are veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. Marble and granite headstones are prominent, and historic plantings include jonquils and crepe myrtle trees. A cemetery association formed in the 1930s. Historic Texas Cemetery-2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This pioneer burial ground served the New Salem community, a 1850s settlement with a stagecoach stop, post office, and academy nestled between Quinn Mountain and the Angelina River. Tradition holds that two enslaved people were the first laid to rest here, and its oldest marked grave belongs to a two-year-old child who died in 1856. Veterans of conflicts reaching back to the Civil War lie beneath marble and granite stones amid historic jonquils and crepe myrtles.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the memory of a vanished antebellum crossroads community and the enslaved and free people whose labor and lives shaped early Rusk County.
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Related people
- · John Mandeville Mays
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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