West Tempe Cemetery
Livingston, Polk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
West Tempe Cemetery, established August 24, 1883. Historic Texas Cemetery-2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Set aside on August 24, 1883, West Tempe Cemetery served a farming settlement in Polk County during the Reconstruction-era resettlement of the East Texas Piney Woods. Recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002, it preserves the resting place of the pioneers who built the surrounding community.
Why it matters
Dated founding grounds like this fix a precise moment in the slow settlement of rural Texas, honoring communities that left few other records.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Polk County
Livingston, TX
Polk County was carved from Liberty County and organized in July 1846, with Livingston as its seat, in the first months after Texas joined the Union. It was named for President James K. Polk, whose administration championed the annexation of Texas. Early settlements clustered at river landings like Drew's Landing and Swartout, and on land granted by the state in 1854 the descendants of the Alabama Indians still make their home.
R.A. McCaghren Cemetery
Livingston, TX
Established in 1870, this burial ground served the rural community around Livingston in Polk County during the years after the Civil War. Its Historic Texas Cemetery designation, awarded in 2002, marks it as a preserved link to the families who settled and farmed this corner of the East Texas Piney Woods.
Carlisle Cemetery
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This burial ground grew up alongside a small East Texas settlement that answered to several names in turn — Vaughns Mill, then Bold Springs, then Carlisle — as families like the Bonds put down roots in the 1870s. Moses Bond donated the land, and the oldest marked grave belongs to a Civil War veteran who died in 1867, a reminder that the dead here predate the formal settlement. Slabs, upright stones, a false crypt, and curbing still mark generations of area pioneers and community leaders.
Moscow
Moscow, TX
Settled by David Green during the days of the Republic of Texas, this Polk County town opened its first post office as Green's in 1847, renamed Moscow in 1853, and incorporated in 1856 as a stage stop on the Nacogdoches-Liberty Road. Proud of its schools, Moscow ran a free school system as early as 1851 and hosted early industries from a cannery to a factory making architectural pillars. Its arrival as a railroad town in 1881 brought the tiny Moscow, Camden & San Augustine, one of the shortest railroads in Texas.