Pin Oak Cemetery
Gause, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial ground, which extends along Pin Oak Creek, has served the rural Pin Oak Settlement, as well as the surrounding gause, hanover and liberty communities. Most of the area settlers, the earliest of whom were here by the 1850s, took advantage of the area’s fertile soil and engaged in agriculture. Many of the early Pin Oak settlers were related, with a number coming from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Morgan and Marshall counties in Alabama. The settlers established a school prior to the Civil War, which served Pin Oak until it consolidated with the Milano Independent School District in 1949. This property was deeded by Walker P. Perkins for use as a cemetery in 1896, when he conveyed it to trustees W.H. Spinks, R.T. Littleton and John Ditto. The earliest known burials, of Charles Shafer and then James D. Faubion, occurred in 1861, though there may be older unmarked graves. Cemetery features include vertical stones, curbing and obelisks. Among the interred are veterans of conflicts dating to the civil war. The Pin Oak community began to decline after World War II, as many residents followed the national trend in moving to urban areas for employment opportunities. The cemetery deteriorated, but concerned family members worked to preserve the burial ground. Today, residents and relatives of the deceased continue to care for the cemetery, which serves as a record of the pioneering men and women of the Pin Oak community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Stretching along Pin Oak Creek, this cemetery served a farming settlement whose earliest families, many related and drawn from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama, were in place by the 1850s. Walker P. Perkins deeded the land to trustees in 1896, though the earliest known burials, of Charles Shafer and James D. Faubion, date to 1861, and older unmarked graves may lie beneath. Its obelisks, curbing, and veterans' graves reach back to the Civil War, and the community declined after World War II as families moved to the cities.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the migration story and slow rural decline of a Central Texas farming community over nearly a century.
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Related people
- · Walker P. Perkins
- · Charles Shafer
- · James D. Faubion
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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