Old Independence Cemetery
Independence, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A very old graveyard of Anglo-Texas. Started about 1823 on league of Judge J. P. Cole, one of the "Old 300" in the Austin Colony. A daughter, Madora Cole McCrocklin, gave the site. Many statesmen, educators, physicians, lawyers, war veterans and other "Old Texians" are buried here.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground took shape in the early 1820s on land held by Judge J. P. Cole, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists who first brought Anglo settlers into Mexican Texas. Donated by his daughter, the cemetery became the resting place of statesmen, physicians, educators, and veterans who helped build the community of Independence. Its weathered stones read like a roster of the founding generation of Anglo-Texas.
Why it matters
As one of the oldest Anglo-Texan graveyards, it anchors the story of the Austin Colony—the seed from which American settlement of Texas grew.
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Related people
- · J. P. Cole
- · Madora Cole McCrocklin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Moses Austin Bryan
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A grandson of Moses Austin, whose 1821 contract opened Texas to Anglo-American settlement, Moses Austin Bryan came to Texas in 1831 and worked alongside his uncle Stephen F. Austin. He fought at San Jacinto in 1836, served the Republic as a diplomatic secretary, joined the 1842 Somervell Expedition, and rose to major in the Confederate army during the Civil War.
Home of Dr. Asa Hoxey
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Dr. Asa Hoxey built this home at Independence in 1833, when the settlement lay in Mexican Texas on the eve of revolution. As a physician and prominent figure, Hoxey hosted many of the leading men of the era, and his house became a gathering point during Texas's formative years. The state marked the site in 1936 as part of its centennial commemorations.
John Prince Coles
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John Prince Coles, a North Carolinian, joined Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" and reached present Washington County on New Year's Day 1822, receiving a Mexican land grant in 1824. He founded Coles Settlement—later renamed Independence—and was appointed alcalde of the Washington municipality in 1828. After serving in the Republic of Texas Army in 1836, he sat as a senator in the First Congress.
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