McGinnis Cemetery
Tarkington, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
McGinnis Cemetery Established 1861. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2018
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1861, McGinnis Cemetery began at the very outset of the Civil War, when the farming families of rural Liberty County were being drawn into the conflict that would reshape Texas. Frontier cemeteries of this era often gathered pioneer settlers and the war generation side by side. It carries a Historic Texas Cemetery designation.
Why it matters
A burial ground opened in the war's first year reflects how deeply the Civil War reached into even the remote rural communities of East Texas.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Burton B. Tarkington and his wife Sarah left Indiana in the mid-1820s for the Mexican state of Coahuila, settling west of the Trinity River and building a ranch and farm on land that came to bear their name. Family tradition holds they fled in 1836 as Santa Anna's army advanced toward San Jacinto. After independence, the new Republic granted Tarkington more than 4,600 acres, and he later served in the Texas Militia and as a county commissioner.
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