Thomas Cemetery
San Augustine, San Augustine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1822, North Carolina native Benjamin Thomas, then in Alabama, read an advertisement calling for families to settle Stephen F. Austin’s colony in Texas. Between himself as head of family, his wife Mary Ann “Polly” (Dickinson), eleven children and seven slaves, he qualified for more than 3,000 acres. The family reached Natchitoches, Louisiana in Feb. 1822 and stayed there until July waiting for Austin to escort them to their new home. However, Austin never came, so the family continued their journey along El Camino Real and founded the Thomas Settlement in San Augustine County. Other early settlers included the Davis, Teel, Horn, Price, King, Brooks, Fitzgerald, Polk, Bate and Mathews families. A mercantile store, blacksmith, gristmill and sawmill supported the community. The Thomas children served in many capacities in early county and Texas history, including the military, ministry, law enforcement, and commerce. The Thomas Cemetery comprises two acres in the James W. Moss survey, near where the Thomas plantation home stood. Benjamin Thomas died in 1834 and Mary died in 1840. Their graves and many others are believed to be marked by native fieldstones. The oldest dated grave is for Sarah Moore Fitzgerald (1795-1840). The Thomas Cemetery is the final resting place of many citizens instrumental in the development of the Republic and State of Texas, including veterans of the War of 1812 through Vietnam, and fifteen born in the area before the Republic of Texas era. In 1946, trustees established a caretaking trust from which the cemetery is managed today. The cemetery is the only remaining physical evidence of the once-thriving Thomas Settlement. Many descendants live nearby, with some families represented by seven generations of burials in one of the oldest community burial grounds in San Augustine County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1822 Benjamin Thomas answered an advertisement calling families to Stephen F. Austin's new colony, and after waiting months at Natchitoches for an escort that never came, his large household pushed on along El Camino Real to found the Thomas Settlement in San Augustine County. A store, blacksmith, gristmill and sawmill grew up around them, and their children served the emerging Republic and State of Texas in arms, ministry, law and commerce. Today the two-acre cemetery, its oldest graves marked by native fieldstones, is the only physical trace of that once-thriving community.
Why it matters
It captures the first wave of Anglo-American settlement of Texas under Austin's colony—the seedbed of the Republic—preserved in one of San Augustine County's oldest community burial grounds.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Thomas
- · Mary Ann "Polly" Thomas
- · Stephen F. Austin
Themes & tags
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