Seadrift Cemetery
Seadrift, Calhoun County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Seadrift Cemetery An epidemic, thought to be measles, took the lives of a number of infants in this area in 1912-1913. Some of their graves remain unmarked, but they were among the first to be interred at this site. This cemetery was established in 1912, when A.D. Powers, a land promoter, deeded five acres to J.L. Knight (1862-1927), trustee for the town of Seadrift, for a community burial ground. The grave of Daisy E. Watkins (1878-1913) is the earliest dated adult burial among generations of local leaders and area citizens laid to rest here. Stones with older dates were moved here from other locations as memorials to loved ones. The many veterans buried here include those who participated in the Texas Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The E.L. Wooldridge family deeded 2.57 acres in 1951 and .85 acres in 1969 to allow for needed expansion. A re-organization of the Seadrift Cemetery Association in 1967 resulted in the installation of a fence and water well, improved maintenance and other enhancements for this historic cemetery. The association continues to oversee the affairs of this site that chronicles the lives of many of Seadrift's early residents and their descendants. Historic Texas Cemetery-2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Seadrift Cemetery was established in 1912 when land promoter A.D. Powers deeded five acres to trustee J.L. Knight for a community burial ground. Among its first interments were infants lost to a measles epidemic in 1912–1913, and the earliest dated adult grave is that of Daisy E. Watkins, who died in 1913. The cemetery holds generations of local leaders and veterans of conflicts from the Texas Revolution through Vietnam, and a 1967 reorganization of its association brought fencing, a water well, and improved care.
Why it matters
A community cemetery like Seadrift's is a layered archive of a town's whole history — its epidemics, its founders, and the citizens who answered the call in every American war.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J.L. Knight
- · Daisy E. Watkins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Cox's Point
Point Comfort, TX
This point on the Texas coast served as an early landing where supplies were unloaded for the interior. During the Texas Revolution, Captain Jack Shackelford's Alabama volunteers, the "Red Rovers," came ashore here on their way to the fighting. A town founded at the site in 1836 was short-lived, burned in an Indian raid in 1840, and the state marked the spot in 1936.
Nicholas Fagan
Tivoli, TX
Nicholas Fagan came to Texas in 1829, settling in Power's colony along the Gulf Coast, and served as a private in Fraser's Refugio company during the Texas Revolution. Captured after the Battle of Coleto in 1836, he escaped the fate of the Goliad Massacre when Mexican friends intervened to spare his life. The state honored him with this marker in 1956.
Peter Teal
Tivoli, TX
Tennessee-born Peter Teal (1812–1854) took up arms in the fight for Texas independence, serving in the Army of the Republic in 1835 and 1836. The State of Texas placed this marker at his grave in 1936 as part of its centennial remembrance of the men who won the Republic.
T-C Ranch House
Tivoli, TX
Thomas O'Connor came to Texas as an orphaned boy from Wexford, Ireland, with his uncle the empresario James Power. He signed the Goliad Declaration of Independence at seventeen and fought at San Jacinto, later remembered as the youngest Texian in that decisive battle. On this land grant he built a log cabin in 1842; the present ranch house followed in 1874, its bricks fired from clay dug along the San Antonio River, and the T-C ranching operation has passed through five generations of his family.