There are cemetery traditions that have been followed for generations in both my family and Ginger’s. In my family we visit the cemetery on the first Sunday in May, decorating the graves, visiting, reminiscing about loved ones that have passed, and sharing the family history and lore with the youngsters. The day always ends in a big spread at my cousin’s house. For my generation, it is a day not to be missed. In early June of this year, Ginger and I decided to pay homage to our friends in the Bonham and Wilks Cemeteries by decorating their graves. I wrote letters to each person, and Ginger made posies from wildflowers we gathered in the meadows surrounding the cemeteries. In a series of posts, we want to share with you images of the decorated graves and our letters to the departed. This initial post will focus on Martin and Susan Cagle.
Martin,
When you and Susan married, the independent nation of Texas was just a few weeks old. As the old saying goes, you weren’t born in Texas, but you got here as soon as you could. Your daughter Martha, your fifth child, was born here in 1845. You were truly a pioneer. I think about the life you lived, arriving in a sparsely populated Fannin County, finding the land you would settle, making a home. Perhaps farming the rich Bois d’Arc Creek bottom lands. I know life had to be hard, and yet, growing up on a farm myself, I imagine it was rewarding. Certainly you knew Nature’s beauty and abundance in a way that few have an experience of today. You owned land, you owned slaves. You appear to have enjoyed some level of prosperity. You died young, only 43. You left behind a young wife and six children, the oldest 14 and the youngest less than 2. I wonder how you died. Did an accident befall you, did you waste away from a fever? I think of how grief-struck your family must have been. How large the hole left in their lives, both practical and emotional. I think of Susan and the older children struggling to go on without you.
You were not the first burial in the cemetery. There is the unknown grave that could have preceded you, and there is the grave that I believe must be that of your little daughter Martha who died in 1850. But your tombstone holds the earliest recorded death date, 12/11/1852. You have been resting in peace in this lovely spot for almost 166 years. You were a slave owner, something that in life would have divided us, but today I wish you nothing but peace in the new home being prepared for you. May you rest well.
Susan,
Left, at the age of 38, a widow with six children, the oldest no more than 14 and the youngest a toddler, did you regret the move to Texas? Did you pine for home and family? Or did you pull your children around you and thrive? I see you on the Fannin County Tax Rolls in 1858, and as a head of household in the 1860 census, so I know you stayed on the land and carried on. You & Martin had buried little Martha back in 1850. By 1860, your eldest daughter, Frances, had married, and you had buried another child, a son, Martin, who died as a teenager. The other four children were still living with you - Robert, a young man of 23, Edward a lad of 19, Mary blossoming at 13, and John a youngster of 9. Did any of you have an inkling then that time was running short for you? Or that a brutal war that would change your family forever was about to break out? By August of 1861, the Civil War had already begun as the children laid you to rest. You and Martin share a lovely tombstone - tall, graceful, and richly decorated. The other Cagle graves have only small slabs with carved initials - no embellishment, no details. I imagine the children raising the monument to their lost parents, and I hope they were all together to dedicate it, before the eldest boys rode off to war. Robert is known to have served in the Confederate Army. Edward was of an age to serve. Neither appear in the annals of Fannin County after the war, and the grave marked ESC is possibly Edward’s. John is likely the JHC buried next to you, the date of his death lost to history. Like Frances, we know that Mary grew up, married, and had children, though, sadly, I can find no living descendent of either of them in this area today. I think of you as a strong woman in a line of strong pioneering women and I salute you.
Cagle Monument Decorated, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.
Wanda Photographing the Decorated Graves, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.
In our research, we have managed to connect with living descendants of both the Wilks and Bonham families. We have not been able to identify any living descendants of the Cagle family. In sharing the following family tree, I hope to add substance to the lives of Martin and Susan, but I also hope that a reader will recognize a name and come forward to help us flesh out their story - to help us make that living connection.
Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.