TX Hayman, Laurel Hill, Oakwood, Butler and Squier Cemeteries, San Jacinto County 2/27/2021

Corporal McKellar's Confederate flatstone was almost unreadable and I just couldn't leave it like that. Scraping it didn't do any good. I had a gallon of tap water in a plastic jug and a stone cleaning brush. I wet it, scrubbed it with the brush a bit, rinsed it, scrubbed it some more and used the water I had left to rinse it again. As bad as it looks, it's way better than how I found it.

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I was lucky to find the next one I found. I was on my second walk-through of the cemetery when I found it. It was about 2/3 buried and I had to start digging it out to make sure it was the one I was looking for. The soldier's first name is "Byrd":

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Pvt. Byrd Mobley Grace aka M.B. Grace, Co. H, 5th Texas Infantry. 30 pages of fold3 records. He enlisted at age 49 on August 20,1861 for the war. Present on all Company Muster Rolls until Sept.- Oct. 1862 where he is listed as "Absent. Wounded at Manassas Aug 30/62." He is listed as absent on all CMRs through July-August 1863 because of the wound at Manassas. Listed as Absent on CMRs from Sept.-Dec. 1863 on a Surgeon's Certificate of Disability. Listed as present on CMRs from January-June 1864 but say he was transferred to the 8th Texas Cavalry on March 14,1864. Guess he couldn't march anymore but he still wanted to serve. Lotta hospital documents in his records. One of them is a Register of General Hospital, Farmville, VA dated July 1,1863 which says "Sent to fortifications at Richmond". His wound at Second Manassas caused him to miss Antietam and Gettysburg. The San Jacinto County Historical Survey Committee submitted a Headstone Application in May 1867. I had to dig the headstone out by hand when I found it. I used a bottle of drinking water to clean my hands and rinse the stone. Yesterday, I bought a small gardening spade to use to dig out stones like that in the future. My stone cleaning kit keeps growing.





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Pvt. Grace has another stone at his gravesite and that's really the main reason why I found his gravesite and the 2/3 buried Confederate flatstone. The civilian stone is a simple stone but it has a small Southern Cross Of Honor carved into it. Kinda unique. It looks smaller in the FindAGrave picture than it really is. I was looking for a much smaller stone when I found it.

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There was one other veteran's gravesite I was looking for. I walked that cemetery 3 times thoroughly and I never found it. He has a military flatstone and I know it’s there. I have a copy of the Headstone Application submitted by the San Jacinto County Historical Survey Committee in 1969. I believe the military stone is buried under growing vegetation and probably a thick layer of pine needles and I have a pretty good idea where it is. I didn't have any heavy duty landscaping implements with me either. It's been bugging me ever since. I have contacted the San Jacinto County Historical Commission to see if they have any contact information for the foundation that maintains Laurel Hill Cemetery. I just can't let this go without trying something. There's an almost 10 year old picture of that Confederate flatstone on the soldier's FindAGrave memorial page. I don't know what you call that plant in the picture, but I only found in one small area of the cemetery. There's a lot of it and there's a cedar tree and 2 fairly good size pine trees right in the midst of it. I know that gravestone is there. I'll keep y'all posted.

 
5 minutes from Laurel Hill Cemetery is Oakwood Cemetery. It is fittingly on Cemetery Road too and it was my next stop in Coldspring, Texas. My first picture was at 10:20AM.

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Oakwood Cemetery is smaller than Laurel Hill Cemetery as far as numbers of interred. Cemetery Road is at the top of a small hill right there and Oakwood Cemetery is on the slope of the hill which is kinda neat. That helped when I was looking for the final three stones I found. They were at the bottom of the slope and I knew what they looked like. Only 1 of them was a military stone and it is a flatstone. They were real close to each other and I spotted the civilian stones while standing on a concrete bench further up the slope and looking downhill. The cemetery's FindAGrave page.

 
Pvt. J.B. Liles, Co. G, 20th Texas Infantry. 15 pages of fold3 records and his last name is spelled "Lisles" and "Lisle" on some of them. 8 pages of Company Muster Rolls and Regimental Returns. Listed as Present on all except 2 when he was on furlough. Enlisted at age 20 on March 28, 1862 for the war and Mustered-in on May 8,1862. CMRs and RRs in his records run through Feb. 1864. 5 Receipt Rolls for clothing and 1 for pay in his records. He submitted a Pension Application at age 57 in October 1899 which was rejected on the same day. The County Commissioners Court approved it but the Comptroller rejected it because he was under 60 and he determined that the claimed disability was not connected to Pvt. Liles' service. I was hoping there'd be a Headstone Application in his Ancestry records but no go. It's easy estimating his birth year from the Muster Rolls and Pension Application, but his date of death and kinfolk information is unknown. There are no Census records for him in Ancestry either.



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I love that these Texas cemeteries have historic markers - it's rare to see that here in New York
Not all of them do. It's a big plus when they do. I have noticed that it's not really a thing in some other states.
 
Not all of them do. It's a big plus when they do. I have noticed that it's not really a thing in some other states.
We don't have a state program for historic markers, it's done and paid for by local groups. Most of our old cemeteries struggle to just maintain the grounds - I doubt they have the time or money to do markers. It's a shame.
 
Pvt. James E. Haden, Co. B, 2nd Texas Infantry. 11 pages of fold 3 records and an interesting read. There are only 2 Company Muster Rolls, both for May, 1861, and both showing him Present and having enlisted on May 16, 1861 for 12 months. The next 5 pages are Hospital Muster Rolls at Camp Lee, Richmond, VA from April 1861 to January 1862 and have him Present and on duty as a Nurse. The February 1862 HMR has him Present and on duty as a Hospital Steward. The next 2 records are Special Orders. The first is dated January 8, 1862, transferring him to the 56th Regt. Va. Vols. The second one is dated August 25, 1862 and says "Appointed Hospital Steward to report to Medical Director Trans-Miss. Dept." Pvt. Haden's FindAGrave memorial was a fun read too. It says "Capt." I don't know where that came from. He had 2 brothers of CW military age too. One is buried in the old City Cemetery in Galveston. I've walked right by his gravesite many times. It's very near Gen. Magruder's gravesite. His other brother was also in the 2nd TX Infantry and is buried in a Methodist Church Cemetery about 12 miles from where I live. I've already scrolled through the memorials for that cemetery and there are at least 10-12 Civil War veterans buried there. If I play my cards right at home, I might get to slip over there for a visit this weekend. Fingers crossed.



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Pvt. A.D. Johnson, Co. E, 20th Texas Infantry. 14 pages of fold3 records. Enlisted at age 18 on March 30,1862 for 3 years. Present on all Company Muster Rolls and Regimental Returns through January 1865. They were stationed in Galveston at least part of the time. He submitted a Pension Application on May 2,1904 which was rejected on September 30,1904. He was ruled to be not indigent under the law. At this point I was out of water to scrub or rinse stones. I had a scraper and I scraped every stone that had anything that could be scraped off. I had 2 32 oz. spray bottles. One had a D2/water 50-50 mix. The other had a Wet & Forget/water 50-50 mix. I hosed every stone like this with one of those mixes. That was last Saturday. Today was the first day it has rained since then. Those stones had a full 5 days for the cleaning agent to work it's way in. Maybe in April or May I can go back and see if it did any good.



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Corp. Robert A. McMurrey, Co. H, 12th Texas Cavalry. Not many records but Confederate service established nevertheless. 2 pages of fold3 records...an Index Card and 1 Company Muster Roll from Sept.1- December 31,1863 which lists him as Present and says that he enlisted on May 25,1862 for 2 years. He died in 1877. His Widow filed a Pension Application in March 1920 which was approved in June 1920. She died in 1922. A grandson submitted a Headstone Application in January 1963.



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Pvt. Robert H. McClanahan, Co. E, 20th Texas Infantry. 14 pages of fold3 records and his last name was butchered all kinds of ways. He enlisted at age 29 on May 2,1862 for 3 years or the war. Present on all Company Muster Rolls and Regimental Returns through January 1865 except 1 short sick leave and furloughs. He filed a Pension Application on 7/10/1909 which was rejected on the same day because he had too much property. His Widow filed a Pension Application in March 1913 which was approved on 9/1/1913. A great-grandson filed a Headstone Application in 1963.

This soldier and the next one I found were not on my list. I missed them in my prep work. Between that and finding Hayman Cemetery, I came up one short on grave marker flags. The lesson from that is to take more extra flags from now on.



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James N.(J.N.) Patrick. He filed a Pension Application in July 1909 which was approved in August 1909. He said he enlisted in Co.F, 4th Texas Cavalry and was transferred to the 20th Texas Infantry in 1864. 5 pages of fold3 records. Enrolled as 3rd Corporal on 9/9/1861 and Mustered-in to Co. F, 4th Texas Cavalry on 9/25/61 for the war. Present on 4 CMRs to Jan. 31,1863. The last one says he was transferred to the 20th Texas Infantry in Jan. '63. His Confederate flatstone says he was Pvt., 27th Brigade, Texas Militia. I looked for a Texas Muster Card or Headstone Application but found neither. I have 2 guesses. Either he was discharged from Confederate service before the war ended and afterwards joined the Texas Militia or someone just made a mistake in the gravestone process.



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