Pennington Family Cemetery
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Fannin County, Texas, during the Republic of Texas period, John Parker Pennington (1840-1904), lived as a young man in Arizona Territory. As a member of one of the first families to settle in the territory he survived several deadly encounters with the region's Native Americans. He participated in the Civil War then moved his family to Texas in 1867. The first recorded burial was that of Pennington's sister, Margaret (Mag) Dennison, in 1872. John Pennington, his two wives, Emily J. McAllister (d. 1880) and Isabelle Purcell (d. 1916), and their descendants are interred here. (1995)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Parker Pennington was born in Fannin County during the days of the Republic of Texas, came of age amid the dangers of frontier Arizona Territory, served in the Civil War, and brought his family back to Texas in 1867. This family burial ground opened in 1872 with the grave of his sister, and it holds Pennington, his two wives, and their descendants. The cemetery reads as a compact record of a restless nineteenth-century family's travels across a still-forming West.
Why it matters
Family cemeteries like this preserve the intimate, generational story of ordinary pioneers who filled in the map of the American frontier.
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Related people
- · John Parker Pennington
- · Margaret Dennison
- · Emily J. McAllister
- · Isabelle Purcell
Themes & tags
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