Salem Cemetery
Llano, Llano County, Texas
Marker Inscription
William Leggette Lewis, a physician and ordained Methodist minister who served in the Civil War, came to Texas with his family in 1878. Lewis land probably was used for a family and community burial ground before 1884, when Rebecca Ann Stevenson, the daughter of Joseph M. and Eliza T. Stephenson, was interred in the earliest marked grave on this site. Dr. Lewis' son, M. Dee Lewis, was interred here a month later. Dr. Lewis and his wife, Isabelle D. (Palmer) Lewis, deeded 100 square yards of land for the cemetery to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1888. Of the more than 209 known graves in the Salem Cemetery, 61 are unmarked; a few have initials scratched on rocks. Twelve graves are those of Civil War veterans. Others served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. William Leggette Lewis, a physician and Methodist minister who had served in the Civil War, brought his family to Texas in 1878, and his land soon became a community burial ground. The earliest marked grave dates to 1884, and by 1888 the Lewises had deeded the plot to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Among its more than 200 graves lie twelve Civil War veterans alongside others who served in the World Wars and Korea.
Why it matters
A cemetery whose graves span from the Civil War through Korea is a compact chronicle of how generations of one rural community answered the nation's call across nearly a century of American conflict.
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Related people
- · William Leggette Lewis
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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