Calvary Cemetery

The Smith family's own account of this cemetery centers on two cedar trees. Trinity County Historical Commission records quote Eleanor Smith Garrett: when Alexander Smith's son Marion was killed, Smith, who owned about 2,000 acres at Nogalus Prairie, buried him on a hilltop, planted a cedar at his head and another at his feet, and set aside ten acres. Smith was buried beside him; neither grave has a stone, and the cedars still stood in 1992. A large gate stone honors Quida Daniel, who willed her estate to the cemetery's upkeep.

What the plaque says

Calvary Cemetery Sometime between 1865 and 1874 Alexander and Jane (Tucker) Smith moved from Alabama and settled here in the community of Nogalus Prairie with their daughter, Ann, and sons Thomas, Rederick, Kirby, and NAthan Marion. The Cemetery site was originally part of 156 acres acquired by Nathan M. Smith on June 2, 1874. According to Smith family tradition, on a date prior to 1888 the cemetery was established when Alexander Smith set aside a one-acre section here out of his son's 156 acres to bury Nathan, who had been murdered. However, the 1875 dates on the grave sites of James McClain and the unidentified child of J.W. and T.E. Bowman indicate earlier burials. The cemetery later was deeded to the local Calvary Baptist Church by descendants of Alexander Smith. In 1908 Mrs. Z.A. Lovelady donated 2.5 cares and J.M. and Millie Kee donated 0.4 acres to enlarge the cemetery. In 1965 another 1.6 acres was donated to the cemetery by Davis family members. The Calvary Cemetery Association, formed in 1962, purchased two acres from the Champion International Corporation in 1988. Among the more than 380 grave site recorded here in 1992 were those of veterans of the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean Conflict. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area — 9.9 mi
  A Davy Crockett National Forest lake of about 45 acres, built by the CCC in 1936 from a sawmill log pond, with a swimming beach, camping and the start of the 20-mile Four-C Trail.
• Mission Tejas State Park — 22 mi
  A 661-acre pine-forest park on the old El Camino Real near Weches, with a 1930s replica of the 1690 mission, the Rice Family Log Home and trails past remnants of the Spanish road.
• Texas Forestry Museum — 22 mi
  A free Lufkin museum, opened in 1976, with sawmill-town exhibits, an oxen-drawn log cart, a locomotive and a 100-foot 1936 fire tower moved from the Conroe area.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 24 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Prairie View United Methodist Church — 1.2 mi
• Moore Cemetery — 3.1 mi
• Aaron Lowery — 4.1 mi
• Antioch Cemetery — 8.6 mi