McDougle Cemetery
Klein, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This small cemetery reflects the common 19th-century custom of burying friends and family near the family homestead. In 1838, George McDougle (1786-1871) bought 100 acres out of the John House survey and moved his family to the property surrounding this cemetery, on which he built a house, established a farm and raised cattle. The McDougle family retained ownership of the homestead for 100 years. There are 15 marked graves in the McDougle cemetery and an unknown number of unmarked graves. The first burial is thought to be that of George McDougle's wife, Jane (Laughlin), who died in 1864. There is no tombstone for her grave, nor for that of George, a Texas Ranger in 1839, who died in 1871 and is also thought to be buried here. Their son James Ellison McDougle (1829-1892), a civil war veteran and Harris County commissioner from 1879 to 1881, is buried here in a marked grave, as is his wife, Joanah (Laughlin) (1834-1922), and their three sons. One son, John Kaleb McDougle (1865-1934) served as a Harris County commissioner in 1902. Other family names that appear on grave markers in the cemetery are Bonds, Pevateaux, Weathers and Spell. In 1938, George and Jane McDougle's grandson Robert (1857-1941) sold the family homestead but retained the right of access to the cemetery. Robert and his wife, Elizabeth (1862-1935), are interred here, as is their son Virgil Kaleb McDougle, whose burial in 1956 was the last 20th-century interment in the historic graveyard. (2001) Historic Texas Cemetery (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1838 George McDougle brought his family to 100 acres carved from the John House survey, building a home and raising cattle on land his descendants would hold for a full century. This small burying ground reflects the 19th-century Texas custom of interring kin near the homestead; among its graves lie a Texas Ranger, a Civil War veteran who served as a Harris County commissioner, and several generations of the family.
Why it matters
Family graveyards like this one map the quiet persistence of the pioneer households that settled and worked the Texas land through statehood, war and reconstruction.
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Related people
- · George McDougle
- · James Ellison McDougle
- · John Kaleb McDougle
Themes & tags
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