Union Grove Cemetery
Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1868 with burial of Mary Ann Patton, the first wife of John F. Patton (1829-1900). He was Jacksonville postmaster, Confederate Army officer during Civil War (1861-65). In 1871 he deeded this land to the Union School and Church. Kept up by gifts, cemetery is still in use. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This East Texas burial ground began in 1868 with the grave of Mary Ann Patton, first wife of John F. Patton—a Jacksonville postmaster and Confederate officer of the recent Civil War. In 1871 Patton deeded the surrounding land to a combined Union School and Church, and the cemetery has remained in continuous use ever since, sustained by community gifts. It endures as a record of the pioneer families who settled Cherokee County in the Reconstruction years.
Why it matters
A community cemetery like this preserves the names and connections of the ordinary families who built East Texas in the turbulent decades after the Civil War.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John F. Patton
- · Mary Ann Patton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Texas Civil War Iron Works
Jacksonville, TX
In 1863 the Chapel Hill Manufacturing Co. built an ironworks on this site to make farm and kitchen tools the Confederacy badly needed, smelting native East Texas iron ore with Cherokee limestone and charcoal from nearby hardwoods. A crew that included 100 enslaved workers from Louisiana fed ore down the hillside into the furnaces, where molten iron was cast into molds. By the 1880s at least sixteen ironworks operated across East Texas.
Oldest Home in Jacksonville
Jacksonville, TX
Begun in Texas colonial style in 1857, this house was largely built in 1874 by W.A. Brown, a veteran of Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate cavalry, using hand-sawn heart pine, square nails, and brick of local iron-ore clay. Victorian additions followed in the 1890s, and a resident craftsman built its fine walnut staircase. It was the boyhood home of "Lem" Brown, a merchant and author of a local history.
Church Founded by Chaplain Nicholas A. Davis, C.S.A.
Jacksonville, TX
Presbyterian minister Nicholas A. Davis left his Texas farm to serve as chaplain to the 4th Texas Infantry in Virginia, sharing a private's pay and rations while burying the dead, tending the wounded, and reading and writing letters for illiterate soldiers. Frustrated that Virginia newspapers claimed credit for Texas boys' victories, he published his 1863 account "The Campaign from Texas to Maryland." After the war he returned to preaching and planted Jacksonville's first commercial orchard, seeding the region's rise as a Texas fruit-growing center.
David Greene Templeton
Jacksonville, TX
David Greene Templeton, a North Carolina native, reached newly organized Cherokee County soon after 1846 and settled in the Gum Creek community that became Old Jacksonville. He grew into a prominent landowner and civic leader, was named in 1850 one of the original trustees of the Presbyterian college at Larissa, and served in the Confederate home guard during the Civil War. His descendants went on to play a prominent role in the early growth of Jacksonville.