Old Independence Cemetery

Sam Houston's eldest son is buried here, and his life ended in retreat. Sam Houston Jr. was hit by a minie ball at Shiloh in April 1862 and lived, the Handbook of Texas says, because a Bible in his pocket stopped it. He spent nearly six months as a prisoner, partly at Camp Douglas in Illinois. He trained as a physician, then turned to writing and left a collection of sketches, Sam Houston's Rambling Rustlings. After his wife died in 1886 he came to live with his sister in Independence, and he died there on May 3, 1894.

What the plaque says

Old Independence Cemetery A very old graveyard of Anglo-Texas. Started about 1823 on league of Judge J. P. Cole, one of the "Old 300" in the Austin Colony. A daughter, Madora Cole McCrocklin, gave the site. Many statesmen, educators, physicians, lawyers, war veterans and other "Old Texians" are buried here. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 0.8 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 12 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 17 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• Gen. James Willie — steps away
• Moses Austin Bryan — steps away
• Home of Dr. Asa Hoxey — 0.7 mi
• Columns of a Building of Old Baylor University — 0.8 mi