Old North Church Cemetery
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to legend, the first burial in this cemetery was that of a young girl whose family, traveling through the area when she died, buried her here before continuing their westward journey. Oral tradition also suggests that William Whitaker was already interred in a brick vault by the time Richard Sparks set aside land on this site for use as a community graveyard in 1838. The Union Baptist Church (later the Old North Church) was organized in the spring of that year. The oldest marked grave is that of Saletha Easter Whitaker (d. 1845). Dr. John M. Sparks and his wife formally deeded ten acres including the original five acres set aside by Richard Sparks to the Union church in 1892. The cemetery historically was divided into two sections. The east side was used for the burials of local slaves, many of whom were members of the church, and eventually became a separate cemetery. Other burials of interest include those of veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Texas Revolution. Records indicate that some forty-seven Confederate Civil War soldiers are buried in the southern portion of the cemetery, and twenty-one Union soldiers are interred in unmarked graves. Most of the Union veterans were victims of an epidemic of dysentery during the Reconstruction era. The Old North Church Cemetery Association was organized in 1976. With more than 950 graves in 1998, the graveyard continues to be used by descendants of early church members. The burial ground is a chronicle of the early days of Nacogdoches County. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Set aside as a community graveyard in 1838—the same spring the Union Baptist Church, later the Old North Church, was organized—this burial ground reads like a ledger of early East Texas. Its more than 950 graves hold veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Texas Revolution, alongside forty-seven Confederate and twenty-one Union soldiers, many of the latter lost to a Reconstruction-era dysentery epidemic. The cemetery was long divided, with an east section for the burials of enslaved people, many of them church members, which grew into a separate graveyard.
Why it matters
A single frontier cemetery preserves, in one enclosure, the layered and unequal history of a Southern community across war, slavery, and emancipation.
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Related people
- · Richard Sparks
- · William Whitaker
- · Saletha Easter Whitaker
- · John M. Sparks
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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