Taylor Cemetery
Trinity County, Trinity County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Georgia natives James T. Durdin (b. 1819) and his wife Sarah Washington Ricks (b. 1819) and their five children settled here on a land grant they purchased from Joel Clapp in 1851. Two of their three sons, Washington Bruce and James Francis, died in 1852 and were buried on their property at this site. In their sale of this property to James E. and Mary E. Taylor in 1857, the Durdins set aside this site which they called the Durdin's graveyard. James Durdin died in 1859 and was buried here beside his two sons. The 1860 census shows James and Mary Taylor living here with their six children. The first recorded burial of a Taylor family member was James' and Mary's granddaughter, Ida Arrenia Merrill, in 1873. James (d. 1874) and Mary Taylor (d. 1912) are buried here. The Taylors continued to bury members of their family here and about 1890 opened the graveyard to community burials. The first person outside of the Durbin and Taylor families buried here was Mrs. Joe Barnett, a resident of nearby Pegoda, in the 1890s. Citizens of Pegoda and the surrounding area used the graveyard and by the 1920s were maintaining its grounds. The Taylor Cemetery Association was formed in the 1950s. The property remained in the Taylor family until 1946.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground began in 1852 when a Georgia-born family, the Durdins, buried two young sons on the East Texas land they had settled the year before, setting the plot aside as a family graveyard when they sold the property. The Taylors, who bought the land in 1857, continued burying their kin here and opened the grounds to community burials around 1890. Neighbors from nearby Pegoda came to use and maintain the cemetery, and a caretaking association formed in the 1950s.
Why it matters
A pioneer family graveyard that grew into a shared community cemetery, it records how mid-19th-century settlers put down roots and how their descendants kept those memories tended.
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Related people
- · James T. Durdin
- · James E. Taylor
Themes & tags
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