Moorehead-Melton Cemetery
Eustace, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in the Elizabeth Washburn Survey on land owned by Andrew and Nancy Moorehead, this site first served as a burial ground for members of their extended family. Natives of South Carolina, the Mooreheads migrated west and settled in Alabama before moving to Texas by the 1850s. In 1884, Tennessee native Elias Melton and his first wife, Anna (Capps), bought the surrounding farmland. In 1920, Elias and son Charles D. formally set aside land for the community cemetery. Gravesites here predate the founding of nearby Eustace by decades. The earliest marked grave is that of James Weakes, who died in 1870. Others buried here include pioneer area settlers and veterans of military service dating to the Civil War. There are also many early unmarked graves. In 1979, Melton family descendants gave another donation of land, and the site became known as the Moorehead-Melton Cemetery. Maintained by an association, the graveyard is the site of an annual memorial service and business meeting, where area residents, family members and others gather in honor of their common heritage. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground began on the farmland of Andrew and Nancy Moorehead, South Carolinians who reached Texas by the 1850s, and served their extended family before the surrounding land passed to the Melton family in 1884. In 1920 the Meltons formally set aside land for a community cemetery, though graves here predate nearby Eustace by decades, the earliest marked burial dating to 1870. Pioneer settlers and veterans reaching back to the Civil War rest here, and a family association still holds an annual memorial gathering.
Why it matters
Pioneer cemeteries like this preserve the names and kinship of the ordinary families who settled the East Texas countryside before its towns existed.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ham (Pauline)
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Around 1900 a community grew up on land the Texas and New Orleans Railroad had bought from attorney Marshal Hamlet "Ham" Gossett, and the town took the name Ham in his honor. Farming and ranching drew settlers, and the town gained stores, a cotton gin, a cannery, a school, and a church. Renamed Pauline in 1912 after a postmaster's romantic gesture, the community faded through Depression hardship and typhoid outbreaks, and all but vanished after the tracks were pulled in 1976.
Payne Cemetery
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Shaded by pines and oaks, Payne Cemetery holds the pioneers who came to Henderson County in the 1870s seeking better lives. Among them was William K. Payne, a delegate who signed the 1861 Texas Ordinance of Secession, served in the Civil War, and gave his name to nearby Payne Springs. The first burial, in 1874, was a small child of the Cook family, and generations of the area's founding families lie here alongside veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam.
Thomas Cemetery
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This small family cemetery began with the 1877 burial of Mary Thomas Hall, who died young, likely in childbirth, on the family farm. Its patriarch, Jacob Thomas, was a planter born in North Carolina in 1800 who moved through Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas before reaching Henderson County, Texas, by 1860. His son Sylvester volunteered for the Confederacy but died of influenza in training, leaving Jacob to raise his grandchildren. Generations of the family lie buried here on the hilltop above the creek.
Lollar Cemetery
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The first recorded burial at Lollar Cemetery was the 1867 interment of John S. Partin, infant son of Samuel and Elizabeth Partin, on land then owned by Asa Dalton. The cemetery is thought to be named for neighbor John Lollar, whose farm lay just across the Van Zandt County line, though whether he rests here is unknown. Serving families such as the Fanchers, Brannans, Drivers, and Lewises for more than seventy-five years, it received its last burial—Eli Lollar Fancher—in 1944.