Samuel Calhoun Cemetery
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established by Samuel Calhoun (1788-1871), native of Abbeville, S.C.; Captain of Cavalry, State of Georgia, during War of 1812. He came to Texas 1845. Bought land in Gordiana Badillo and Jose Ortega grants, in this area. Lived near Calhoun Ferry. Children by his first wife Elizabeth Finney (who died 1836): Martha Ann, Mary, Antonette, John H., Catherine, William. By second wife Catherine O'Brien: Ella and Louis. Had sons in Mexican War and Civil War. Generations of descendants are buried here. Calhoun's tomb was brought (1872) to Cincinnati by steamer "Wren". (1969)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Samuel Calhoun, born in South Carolina in 1788 and a cavalry captain in Georgia during the War of 1812, came to Texas in 1845 and acquired land near the ferry that bore his name in Walker County. He raised a large family across two marriages and saw sons serve in the Mexican War and the Civil War. Generations of his descendants lie buried on the ground he established, though his own tomb was carried by steamer to Cincinnati in 1872.
Why it matters
A single family plot here holds the memory of a soldier and pioneer whose kin answered the call in three American wars, mirroring how one household's story can span the nation's conflicts.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Samuel Calhoun
- · Elizabeth Finney
- · Catherine O'Brien
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Christopher C. Edinburg
Walker County, TX
Christopher C. Edinburg came to Texas in 1824, among the earliest Anglo colonists during the Mexican period, and joined the fight for independence at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. That victory won Texas its freedom and established the Republic. Edinburg lived on in Texas until his death in 1864.
Capt. Benjamin I. Harper
Riverside, TX
Benjamin Ingram Harper came from Virginia to Texas in the early 1830s, working as a schoolmaster in Liberty County before the fight for Texas independence swept him up. He fought at the Battle of Concepción and the Siege of Bexar, then raised a company that marched toward the Alamo — arriving too late, but joining the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. Rewarded with land and the rank of captain, he lived out his years farming in Walker County, where tradition places his 1863 grave.
Woodland, Home of Sam Houston
Huntsville, TX
Sam Houston loomed over Texas from its birth as a republic — the general who won independence in 1836 and the new nation's first president. In 1847, while serving as a U.S. Senator, he and his wife Margaret built this whitewashed log home they called "Woodland," a "bang up place" where four of their children were born and where Houston spent what he considered his happiest years. His story darkened at the end: a Unionist governor who opposed secession, he was pushed from office when Texas joined the Confederacy in 1861.
Park Cemetery
Madisonville, TX
The story of Park Cemetery begins in 1852, when John and Elizabeth Park buried her brother Thomas Jefferson Kellett—a veteran of the Republic of Texas army—on their land. As more family members were laid to rest, the plot grew into a community cemetery, formally set aside in 1870 for burials and a school. More than 600 graves now include veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars.