McCune Cemetery
Laneville, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in the Chinquapin Community, McCune Cemetery dates to 1852. Pioneer James L. McCune (1788-c.1838) came to Texas as a member of David G. Burnet’s colony and received a land grant in 1835. McCune’s son, James, married Delila storm, a local Cherokee, in 1836. The first known burial occurred in 1852 for Susan Elizabeth McCune, James and Delila’s third child. The cemetery was handed down through the family until the 1954 McCune Cemetery association was founded. There are more than 200 graves in the cemetery, mostly marked with headstones of granite surrounded by large hickories, oaks and chinquapins. Since 1835, the cemetery land has been owned by McCune heirs and is still active.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
McCune Cemetery grew out of the Chinquapin community in the pine country of Rusk County, its roots reaching back to pioneer James L. McCune, who came to Texas in David G. Burnet's colony and took a land grant in 1835. His son married a local Cherokee woman, Delila Storm, in 1836, and their third child's 1852 burial opened the family graveyard. More than 200 graves now rest beneath hickories, oaks, and chinquapins on land still held by McCune heirs.
Why it matters
A single East Texas family plot preserves the intertwined story of Anglo colonists arriving under the empresario grants and the Cherokee families they married into, a reminder of how blurred the frontier's cultural lines could be.
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Related people
- · James L. McCune
- · Delila Storm McCune
Themes & tags
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