Micam Main of Illinois was granted a league of land by the Mexican government in 1835. One of the area's first brickmakers, Samuel M. Warden, died while working on Main's estate on Christmas Eve in 1847. He was interred on this site. According to oral history, Warden's grave was marked only with bricks of his own manufacture. His is believed to have been the first burial in this cemetery. Virginia native Henry Clay Swanson (1822-1906), a former member of the Alabama state legislature, moved to Texas with his brother, James Madison Swanson, their families and slaves in 1851. "Colonel" Henry C. Swanson owned a farm east of Palestine and later operated a mercantile store in town. He purchased the land around the cemetery from Elisha Main, Micam Main's son and heir, in 1854. The slaves and former slaves of Henry Clay Swanson and James M. Swanson, as well as African Americans from Anderson County and neighboring areas, were interrred on this site. Descendants of slaves attended funerals here from 1872 to the late 1940s and early 1950s. A young girl was among the last interred in the well-populated burial site in the late 1940s. Others buried here include Tom Swanson, a former slave from Virginia to whom Henry Swanson willed $100, and two of his brothers, as well as their descendants. Thirty-six marked and approximately 23 unmarked graves are believed to grace the cemetery. This is the final resting place of many of those whose labor built Anderson County, Houston County, and the state of Texas. (2000)
Swanson Cemetery (1999)
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Swanson Cemetery is a historical marker in Palestine, Anderson County, dedicated in 1999. It is one of 115 historical markers documented in Anderson County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 227 historic sites cataloged across the county.
The site sits at 31.7391, -95.5708 near Palestine. The nearest cataloged historic site is Texas State Railroad (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Swanson Cemetery, Roselawn Park Cemetery, and Chambers Cemetery.
This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5001011660. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
“Swanson Cemetery” names 2 distinct records in Anderson County. This page is the historical marker dedicated in 1999 in Palestine. The others:
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