Port Sullivan Cemetery
Cameron, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1851, Reuben Anderson encouraged development of a townsite on Augustus Sullivan's land; two of Anderson's sons bought the first lots sold in Port Sullivan. The town benefitted from river navigation and grew to include stores, a sawmill, a college, and a population of over one thousand. In 1867, St. Paul's Masonic Lodge No. 177 bought five acres for a community cemetery. One notable burial is that of Thomas J.H. Anderson (d. 1871), Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas. The town declined when bypassed by railroads, and today the cemetery is the only landmark left of this once-thriving settlement. Since 2004, the San Andres Masonic Lodge No. 170 of Cameron has cared for the burial ground. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1850s, boosters laid out Port Sullivan on the Brazos River, and thanks to steamboat traffic it briefly bloomed into a town of more than a thousand souls, complete with stores, a sawmill, and even a college. In 1867 the local Masonic lodge set aside five acres for a community burying ground, where a Grand Master of Texas Masons was later laid to rest. When the railroads pushed through elsewhere, they left Port Sullivan stranded, and the town withered until only its cemetery remained.
Why it matters
Port Sullivan is a classic Texas ghost town whose fate was sealed by the railroad — a reminder that the transportation lines chosen by the Gilded Age decided which frontier settlements lived and which vanished.
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Related people
- · Reuben Anderson
- · Augustus Sullivan
- · Thomas J.H. Anderson
Themes & tags
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