Miles Bennett

Miles Bennett's first wife, Rachel Parker, was a daughter of the Rev. Daniel Parker. A waymarking page names her as the first person buried in Pilgrim Cemetery and gives her death as December 23, 1843. Her headstone stands between her husband's grave and those of her father and her brother Dickinson Parker. An excerpt of a Texas State Historical Association entry quoted on HMDB says Bennett moved to Texas in 1834 with his parents, fought at San Jacinto, served in the Mexican War and spent a year in the Civil War, and gives his years as 1816 to 1887.

What the plaque says

Miles Bennett A soldier in the Army of Texas, 1836. Born in Indiana, July 26, 1816; died November 24, 1849. His wife Laura Jordon Bennett; born August 28, 1830; died December 24, 1925.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 10 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 26 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

• Rev. Daniel Parker — steps away
• Old Pilgrim Church — steps away
• Pilgrim Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church — steps away
• Site of the McClean Massacre — 5.3 mi