Union Grove Cemetery
Gladewater, Upshur County, Texas
Marker Inscription
UNION GROVE CEMETERY HADEN HARRISON EDWARDS (1812-1864), A SOLDIER, MERCHANT AND LEGISLATOR, PURCHASED THIS LAND FROM THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO IN 1835. EDWARDS SERVED IN THE FIRST CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS, IN THE FIRST AND EIGHTH TEXAS LEGISLATURES, WAS A MEMBER OF THE SECESSION CONVENTION IN 1861 AND WAS PRESIDENT OF THE SABINE PASS AND EAST TEXAS RAILWAY. BECAUSE OF HIS BUSY SCHEDULE, EDWARDS SOLD 270 ACRES TO JAMES RILEY PHILLIPS FOR HIS FAMILY HOMESTEAD IN 1857. PHILLIPS AND HIS WIFE, REBECCA J. (MACKEY), RAISED THEIR THREE CHILDREN ON THIS LAND. THE CREATION OF THE PHILLIPS CEMETERY BEGAN WITH THE BURIAL OF FLORENCE PHILLIPS (1849-1855). THE OLDEST MARKED BURIALS BELONG TO REBECCA’S PARENTS, JOEL LEWIS MACKEY (1801-1855) AND MARY FONVILLE MACKEY (1801-1858). BY THE MID-1880s, THE AREA BECAME KNOWN AS THE UNION GROVE COMMUNITY. WILLIAM MARSHALL PHILLIPS, JAMES AND REBECCA’S FIRSTBORN, INHERITED THE LAND AND CONTINUED TO FARM THE LAND. ANOTHER SETTLER, JOHN O’BYRNE, OPERATED A SAWMILL NEARBY. IN 1913, WILLIAM PHILLIPS’ WIFE DEEDED ACREAGE TO O’BYRNE, J. L. MACKEY, A.M. PHILLIPS AND THE COMMUNITY FOR A CEMETERY. EVENTUALLY, THE NAME OF THE CEMETERY WAS CHANGED TO UNION GROVE CEMETERY TO BETTER SERVE THE COMMUNITY. ADDITIONAL ACREAGE WAS PURCHASED IN 1986 AND 2001. THE LANDSCAPE OF THE CEMETERY IS TRADITIONAL WITH WHITE OAK, PINE AND POST OAK TREES AND A VARIETY OF HEADSTONES INCLUDING CONCRETE, FIELDSTONE, GRANITE, MARBLE AND WOOD GRAVE MARKERS. VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR, WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II, THE KOREAN WAR AND THE VIETNAM WAR ARE BURIED HERE. THE UNION GROVE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION MAINTAINS THIS HISTORIC PIONEER CEMETERY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This East Texas burial ground began on land Haden Harrison Edwards bought from the Republic of Mexico in 1835 and later sold to James Riley Phillips, whose family homesteaded it from 1857. The graveyard opened with the burial of young Florence Phillips and grew alongside the Union Grove community, taking that name to serve neighbors beyond the founding family. Edwards himself was a soldier, legislator, and delegate to the 1861 Secession Convention, and veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam rest here.
Why it matters
The cemetery links the land dealings of a Republic of Texas legislator to the everyday farming families who turned his acreage into a lasting community, a common arc of early Texas settlement.
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Related people
- · Haden Harrison Edwards
- · James Riley Phillips
- · Rebecca J. Mackey Phillips
- · John O'Byrne
Related events
- · Texas Secession Convention of 1861
Themes & tags
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