Tombstone Tuesday: All People Great and Small

All People Great and Small
My family and I took a day trip to escape the rain in Houston, Texas a little over a week ago.  We ended up in Nacogdoches, Texas [a.k.a. the Piney Woods].  While we did not go far away enough to escape the precipitation, we did have some time there to explore between "rains".  One of the places we visited was Oak Grove Cemetery which happens to also be a Texas Landmark.  Though I took many pictures, I thought I'd share with you 2 of them that I think accurately represent the cemetery.  I'll be sharing the rest of my pictures of this cemetery and of other Nacogdoches landmarks on my Texas Family Stories blog tomorrow.

Jessie N. Ingraham
This first collage that I made was of a child's tombstone that my own children pointed out to me.  I took several pictures in hopes of identifying Jesie N. Ingraham.  It wasn't hard to find her story.  She was the daughter of George F. and Martha Ingraham of Nacogdoches, Texas.  Her father George was born in New York and served in the Civil War on the Confederate side for the state of Texas.  He was a lawyer as well as both a county and district judge in Nacogdoches.  He also served on the first Board of Directors for the  Nacogdoches and Southeastern Railroad Company.  Jessie was born 26 Jul 1883 and died on 6 Oct 1884 and was one of nine children belonging to George and Martha.

John S. Roberts
Much has been written about John Roberts.  As the pictures indicate in this collage, he was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and one of the four signers who is buried in this cemetery.  He was born in Virginia 13 Jul 1796, and his path of migration to Texas included the states of Tennessee and Louisiana via the miltitary.  He was also a part of the Fredonian Rebellion in Nacogdoches, Texas.  He married a recent widow, Harriet Fenley Collier, and they eventually settled down in Nacogdoches, Texas where he was a merchant beginning in 1827.  He also led the Nacogdoches company into the siege of Bexar in 1835, on the eve of Texas' Independence.

For More of the Story...
For more of Oak Grove Cemetery's story and other landmarks found on this excursion, please read my Texas Family Stories blog tomorrow.

Caroline

Sources:

1. Jessie N. Ingraham:

Stephen F. Austin State University, Ralph W. Steen Library, s.v. "," http://libweb.sfasu.edu/proser/etrc/collections/manuscript/personal/ingraham/index.html (accessed 2 Jun 2009).

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/NN/eqn1.html (accessed 2 Jun 2009).

2. John S. Roberts:

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v."," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/articles/RR/fro14.html (accessed 2 Jun 2009).