Ramah Cemetery
Tenaha, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Ramah community dates to the early 1870s, when William Tell Pou and his wife Mollie Lucy (Grace) Pou first homesteaded here. They helped found Ramah Baptist Church, established in 1874 and named for the biblical city of Ramah, meaning high place. The log church building also served as a schoolhouse, and became the center of a community with a store and cotton gin. This land was used for burials beginning in the 1870s. In 1891, the congregation built a new frame sanctuary, and in 1909, William and Mollie Pou officially deeded 3.6 acres to Ramah Baptist Church to be dedicated as Ramah Cemetery. The oldest marked burial, for Ella Holley, dates from 1878. More than 100 veterans are buried here, representing service in the U.S.-Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean Conflict. Also notable are gravestones for organizations including the Woodmen of the World, order of the Eastern Star and local Masonic lodges. Ramah Cemetery was later enlarged to more than six acres and has more than 1,000 marked burials. The oldest section contains tall marble monuments, obelisks, a brick crypt, and the granite curbed Parrish family plot. Mollie (d. 1917) and William (d. 1934) Pou are buried here, along with ten children and more than fifty descendants. Also buried here is George E.B. Peddy (1892-1951), who was a soldier, attorney and politician. In 1917, he was elected state representative while a student at the University of Texas at Austin, and he ran for U.S. Senate in 1922 and 1948. Peddy also served in both World Wars, receiving the Bronze Star and croix de guerre. Other notable burials include longtime superintendents, teachers, county officials and other community leaders. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Ramah community grew from the 1870s homestead of William Tell and Mollie Pou, who helped found Ramah Baptist Church in 1874 and gave its name — a biblical 'high place' — to the settlement's log church, school, store, and cotton gin. The cemetery formally deeded in 1909 holds more than a thousand graves, including over a hundred veterans spanning the U.S.-Mexican War through the Korean Conflict. Among them lies George E.B. Peddy, elected to the legislature while still a University of Texas student and a two-time U.S. Senate candidate decorated in both World Wars.
Why it matters
Ramah is a settlement's whole life story in one plot — church, school, and commerce — and its long roll of veterans reflects generations of Texans answering the nation's every call to arms.
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Related people
- · William Tell Pou
- · Mollie Lucy Pou
- · George E.B. Peddy
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Shelby County
Center, TX
This corner of East Texas lay within the lawless 'neutral ground' between 1803 and 1819 before Anglo-American settlement began in the 1820s, first organized as the district and then municipality of Tenehaw. Renamed in 1836 to honor Revolutionary War officer Isaac Shelby, the county sent delegates to Texas's early conventions and soldiers to San Jacinto, and its seat moved from Shelbyville to Center in 1866. From 1841 to 1844 it was torn by the Regulator-Moderator Feud, a bloody vigilante conflict finally ended when Republic of Texas troops under Gen. James Smith restored order.
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This marks the vicinity of the first clash in the Regulator-Moderator War, a bitter feud that convulsed Shelby County from 1841 to 1844 in the days of the Republic of Texas. What began as a quarrel between rival factions escalated into an unorganized war of ambush and reprisal, ending only when General James Smith led Texas forces in to restore order in August 1844—reportedly without firing a gun.
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Born in Tennessee, Moses Fisk Roberts came to Texas in 1836 and lost his right eye fighting in the Texas Revolution. A farmer whose beloved fox hounds earned him the nickname "Dog" Roberts, he became a respected public servant in Shelby County — serving in the Congress of the Republic, the State Legislature, and as justice of the peace and county judge.
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