TX East Sandy Cemetery, New Waverly, Walker County, and County Line Cemetery, San Jacinto County 3/20/2021

26.5 miles and about 30 minutes southeast of East Sandy Cemetery is County Line Cemetery in San Jacinto County. It is about an hour and 10 minutes from where I live. It is appropriately named. It is on County Line Road and is on the San Jacinto County side of the Montgomery/San Jacinto County line. The nearest town of any size is Willis, Texas about 7 miles away in Montgomery County. I got there right at 11:00AM last Saturday.

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If you plan to visit County Line Cemetery using Google Maps for navigation/directions, do not Google "County Line Cemetery". The Google lady will not get you there. Google "County Line Primitive Baptist Church" instead and she'll get you there just fine.

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There is no state historical marker at County Line Cemetery. There are some markers recognizing folks who donated land, time and organizational/managerial talent to the cemetery.

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The really interesting thing about County Line Cemetery is that there are 10 Confederate veterans buried there and none of them are from Texas... they all served in Alabama or Louisiana regiments. How cool is that? Those gravesites are/were well marked during my visit except one with a civilian stone only. Not sure the folks who marked the other gravesites know he's a Confederate veteran. I took care of marking his gravestone and adding flags to some of the others. The smaller flags were added by me. Each upright gravestone got some degree and combination of scraping, scrubbing or spraying with D2/water or Wet&Forget/water mixes before I left. All of them got sprayed if nothing else. I went in with my usual handwritten list of all 10 veterans. The hardest one to find was the one with the civilian stone only and it was the last one I found. The cemetery is divided into 3 sections and all the Confederate veterans are in the oldest section which is the closest one to the church and main gate. There are 2 gates on a side road next to the cemetery for vehicular access on a U-shaped road in the middle of the cemetery. Here is the cemetery's FindAGrave page:

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1368010/county-line-cemetery
 
Took this picture from just inside the gate where the bronze plaques are. That was before I saw the gates in the fence to the left. I can see 4 of the veterans' gravestones in that picture.

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Corp. William L. Wise, Co. K, 29th Alabama Infantry. 13 pages in fold3. He enlisted on March 10, 1862 for the war. He was promoted to 4th Corporal on 7/19/1862. Present on Company Muster Rolls through August 1863. Muster records end there. He appears on a Register of Ross Hospital, Mobile,AL. He was admitted for pneumonia on 3/7/64 and returned to duty on 4/4/64. He was wounded at Franklin on 11/30/1864. There is some kind of Discharge and Pay form in his records but the ink is so faded that I couldn't read most of the handwriting in the blanks. Couldn't find a pension or headstone application in Ancestry.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67575688/william-lewis-wise

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The record of Corp. Wise's wounding at Franklin. It would be interesting to see the regimental casualties report for Franklin.

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Pvt. Elija W. Thomas, Co. E, 57th Alabama Infantry. No record of him in fold3 or the NPS database. His widow filed a Pension Application in May 1910 which was approved in September 1913. The War Department could find no record of his service either. She obtained affidavits from 2 purported Company comrades who said that he enlisted on July 14,1863 and was discharged on May 2,1865. His civilian gravestone has been cleaned since the FindAGrave picture was taken. Looks like the home-made military flatstone was added later.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38433627/e-w-thomas


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Pvt. W.S. Purswell, Co. G, 29th Alabama Infantry . 9 pages in fold3. He enlisted on August 10,1861 for the war. Present on all Company Muster Rolls through August 1863 except 2, 1 when he was on detached service and the other when he was absent with leave. One pay receipt for 4 months in 1862. He filed a Pension Application in 1900 which was disapproved because he had too much property. Could not find a Headstone Application.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67506932/william-sanford-purswell


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Pvt. John Walding, Co. D, 53rd Alabama Partisan Rangers. 10 pages in fold3. He enlisted on August 21,1862 for the war. Present on all Company Muster Rolls through December 1863. They end there in his records. A Receipt Roll for clothing dated 12/28/1864 shows him as a Corporal. He filed a Pension Application in January 1906 which was approved in March 1906. His widow filed a Pension Application in September 1914 which was approved in March 1915. He has 2 upright Confederate gravestones but one is on the ground.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43065807/john-alexander-walding


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Corp. John J. Walker, Co. D, Miles' Legion, Louisiana Volunteers. 3 pages of fold3 records...an Index Card and 2 Company Muster Rolls. He enlisted on April 15, 1862 but the 2 CMRs don't say for how long. The May 9,1862 CMR says "Absent. Enlisted and in receipt of bounty, but not present at the Muster." The June 30, 1862 CMR says "Absent. Sick in Hospital at Port Gibson, Miss." No other records except a Pension Application filed in September 1909 and approved in February 1910. In it he said he enlisted in Co. A, 6th Louisiana Cavalry in December 1863 and served until May 1865. Two witnesses attested to that under oath. The War Department could find no record of that and neither could I.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21476116/john-jackson-walker


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Pvt. William J. Walker, Co. C, 27th Louisiana Infantry. 10 pages in fold3. He enlisted at Camp Moore on April 30, 1862 for the war. His $50 bounty was paid on 6/12/1862. He is listed as present on all Company Muster Rolls through December 1862 where they end in his records. He was captured at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. His written Parole is in his records. Hard to read the date...either 7/7 or 7/9. His widow filed a Pension Application in November 1908 which was approved in March 1909. Couldn't find a Headstone Application. The Headstone Application records that come with an Ancestry membership are only from 1925-1970. I suspect some, maybe all, of the bronze flatstones in County Line Cemetery are newer than that.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21476116/john-jackson-walker


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Pvt. M.E. Parker, Co. D, 31st Louisiana Infantry. That's what it says on his gravestone anyway. There is a "M. Parker" in the NPS database and fold3 in Co. D, 31st Louisiana Infantry. 3 pages of fold3 records...an Index Card and 2 Company Muster Rolls. He enlisted in Vidalia,LA on April 26,1862 for the war. The July 6,1862 CMR says "Present". The November 12, 1862 CMR says "Absent. Sick in Hospital at Jackson, Miss. since Nov. 1,1862." No other records except a Pension Application filed in May 1900 and approved in July 1900. In it he said he served in Co. A, 10th Texas Cavalry for 3. Two witnesses, J.J. Walker and W.J. Walker, both posted above and buried in County Line Cemetery, attested to his service. His widow filed a Pension Application in 1903 which was approved. She stated the same company and regiment, Co. A,10th TX CAV. Here's the State Comptroller's report:

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Sgt. William A. Kelly, Co. B, 12th Louisiana Infantry. 14 pages in fold3. He enlisted at Camp Moore on August 13,1861 for 12 months. Present on all Muster Rolls through April 1865 except one "Absent sick at Hospital Montgomery, Ala. 20 Apl. 1863" and one "Absent. Detached on guard duty." in April 1865. There are 2 different 1862 dates given in his muster records as his date of promotion to Sergeant. The last Muster Roll in his records say he was a 2nd Lieutenant. He filed a Pension Application in July 1909 which was approved in August 1909. J.J. Walker was one of the witnesses. He has a bronze flatstone and upright Confederate gravestone. The upright one definitely got a good spraying before I left.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42305431/william-a-kelly


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Only found one Headstone Application for Sgt. Kelly. It was submitted in 1938 and I am not sure of his relationship, if any, with the Applicant. It doesn't say what type of headstone is requested but it does request a Christian emblem which leads me to believe it might be for the bronze flatstone.

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Pvt. Ambrose Dean, Co. D, 53rd Alabama Partisan Rangers. 11 pages in fold3. He enlisted on August 15, 1862 for the war. He is present on all Company Muster Rolls through December 1863 where they end in his records. He was captured on April 19, 1865 in South Carolina. There are 2 1864 Receipt Rolls for clothing in his records. Could not find a Headstone Application.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21793408/ambrose-dean


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Pvt. George W. Smith, Co. H, 37th Alabama Infantry. 13 pages in fold3. Only one Company Muster Roll and it's dated April 23.1862. It says he enlisted on March 18, 1862 for 3 years or the war. On a Roll Of Prisoners Of War captured at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and paroled on 7/9/1863. His written parole is in his records too. On 4 Hospital Lists in Georgia and Alabama in 1864 for digestive illnesses. In Gen. Hospital No. 10 in Salisbury,NC at the end of the war. He was paroled on May 2,1865. His gravestone was the last I found and he hardest to find. It was smaller than I expected. I scraped a mass of fungus off the base of the stone, sprayed it with Wet&Forget/water. The stone itself was really coarse and I'm not sure what it's made of so I didn't touch it otherwise. Check out the flag. Ordered 20 of those a few weeks ago.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43022844/george-washington-smith


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I walked around a few minutes and took a few more pictures before I rolled out from County Line Cemetery. It was about 2:15PM when I headed for home and I'd had boots on the ground for about 6.5 hours that Cemetery Saturday. It was a great day. Thanks for reading along. A short edition of Cemetery Saturday will be filmed this coming Saturday.

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