Midway Cemetery

A transcription of the markers at Midway Cemetery names Andrew Addison McKee as its founder and Mary Barnes McKee as the first grave. Two entries, for Henry Bartee and Sarah Bartee in Row 10, are noted as former slaves from cemetery records, with stone markers that carry no name. The list names Confederate veterans including William A. Adams, Richard N. Dickens and Jasper Newton Young, and several stones show Masonic emblems. Arthur H. Cain, who died in 1943, is noted as lost at sea in World War II.

What the plaque says

Midway Cemetery Andrew A. (1816-1898) and Mary Barnes (1817-1857) McKee came to Texas in 1845 and purchased land here in 1854. Mary, who died in childbirth, was the first person buried here. According to local tradition, just prior to her death Mary marked this site for family burials with her footprint on a gopher mound. By 1865 the cemetery served the Midway community and the surrounding area. Buried here are pioneer settlers and their descendants, former slaves, and veterans of conflicts from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. The cemetery is maintained by an association. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Thicket National Preserve — 24 mi
  Start at the Kountze visitor center, where rangers sort the preserve's scattered units for you, and learn why Congress made this 1974 string of pearls the country's first national preserve.
• Martin Dies, Jr. State Park — 26 mi
  A 705-acre state park on Steinhagen Reservoir at the meeting of the Neches and Angelina rivers, with about 14 miles of paddling trails through sloughs and more than 200 campsites.

More markers nearby

• Confederate Service of Alabama and Coushatta Indians — 2.7 mi
• Major Henry W. Augustine — 11 mi
• Menard Chapel Church, School, and Cemetery — 12 mi
• The Yale Summer Forestry Camp and Gifford Pinchot — 12 mi