Warthan Cemetery
Annona, Red River County, Texas
Marker Inscription
George Washington Warthan came to Texas from Tuscaloosa, Alabama with brothers Thomas I. And Robert J. in 1852. G.W. wed Amanda Johnson, and the couple settled in the Red River Valley in 1855. In 1861, he mustered into Company E of the 32nd Texas Cavalry and during his service saw action in more than 30 Civil War battles. Captured in 1864 and held as a prisoner of war until 1865, he returned to Texas at the age of 29, and through grants and land purchases he expanded his Red River County landholdings. Warthan's acquisitions included land in this area, north of the farming community of Garland. It included a cemetery used by area residents, with graves believed to predate the Republic of Texas. In 1881, he set aside what he dubbed Warthan Cemetery and encouraged his family to preserve the site. By the late 1960s, early grave indicators, including bois d' arc markers and loose stones, had disappeared. The cemetery land was formally deeded in 1951 and later enlarged. The earliest marked grave dates to 1881, and today the cemetery remains as a tie to generations of Warthans and other area residents. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
George Washington Warthan came from Tuscaloosa, Alabama with his brothers in 1852 and, after marrying Amanda Johnson, settled in the Red River Valley in 1855. In 1861 he mustered into Company E of the 32nd Texas Cavalry, seeing action in more than thirty Civil War battles before being captured and held prisoner until 1865. Returning home, he expanded his landholdings and in 1881 set aside this cemetery, whose graves are believed to predate even the Republic of Texas.
Why it matters
The cemetery links the settlement of the Red River frontier to the Civil War service of its pioneers, marking generations who built the communities of northeast Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George Washington Warthan
- · Amanda Johnson Warthan
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Garland Cemetery
Annona, TX
Joseph and Martha Wagley came from Louisiana to Red River County in 1833, part of the wave of settlers moving into the young Republic of Texas's borderlands. Their family burial ground took shape here before the Civil War, in which Joseph served the Confederacy and lost a son. After Joseph sold the land to the Garland family in 1866 the cemetery took on their name, and by 1914 it passed to the Methodist church, which with the Annona community still tends it today.
Richland Cemetery
Sulphur Springs, TX
In 1872, as new farming settlements spread across Northeast Texas, a Baptist congregation and a country school took root at Richland, and the burying ground beside them became the community's enduring anchor. Its graves hold the area's early families and more than a dozen Civil War veterans, with reinterments carrying the record back to the early 1870s. The church and school are long gone, but caretakers have tended the cemetery through societies formed in 1922 and 1962.
Shady Grove Cemetery
Winnsboro, TX
One of the oldest burial grounds in Wood County, Shady Grove served the pioneer community of the same name, whose leading settler Reuben Elledge arrived around 1845 and helped organize the county as a commissioner and judge. In 1850 he donated land for a school and Methodist church, and an acre was later set aside for this cemetery, where young Bobby Scoggins—drowned in 1855—may be the earliest burial. Rock cairns, obelisks, Woodmen of the World stones, and graves of Civil War veterans mark the site of early settlement.
County Line Cemetery
Harleton, TX
In the years around the Civil War, settlers drawn from North Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia gathered near the Harrison–Upshur county line to form the Crossroads community, founding a Baptist church and this cemetery on land given by Dr. T.B. Burford. The earliest marked grave belongs to Eli Henderson McCoy, who came from North Carolina in 1859, served in the Confederate Army, and died in 1863. Tombstones bearing military and fraternal emblems—and two rare stone cairns—record the lives of the families who built the settlement.