Tubb Cemetery
Centerville vicinity, Leon County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Tubb Cemetery was named for early area landowners Elisha Floyd Tubb (1805-1862) and G. W. Tubb (1818-1896), who are both interred here. The first documented burial is that of Joel D. Leathers (1795-1849); his wife, Mary Leathers (1800-1865), is also buried here. According to oral tradition, they were sent here by General Sam Houston because Joel could speak several Indian dialects. Gravestones in the cemetery reflect the military service of Civil War, World War I and World War II veterans. The burial ground has served the nearby communities of Malvern, Nineveh and Oakwood and is maintained by the Tubb Cemetery Association. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This East Texas burial ground grew up around the graves of early landowners the Tubb family and the pioneer Leathers family, whose first interment dates to 1849. Oral tradition holds that Joel Leathers, who could speak several Indian dialects, was sent to the area by General Sam Houston — a hint of the frontier's uneasy meeting of settlers and Native peoples. Later headstones mark veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars, so the cemetery reads like a layered record of the communities of Malvern, Nineveh, and Oakwood.
Why it matters
A rural cemetery like this is a community's memory made visible, tracing settlement, service, and generations of ordinary lives across more than a century.
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Related people
- · Sam Houston
- · Elisha Floyd Tubb
- · Joel D. Leathers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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