Swanson Cemetery

Micam Main of Illinois received a league of land from the Mexican government in 1835. Samuel M. Warden, one of the area's first brickmakers, died while working on Main's estate on Christmas Eve in 1847 and was buried at this site, where oral history says his grave was marked only with bricks of his own making; his burial is believed to have been the first in the cemetery. Virginia native Henry Clay Swanson (1822-1906), a former member of the Alabama state legislature, moved to Texas in 1851 with his brother James Madison Swanson, their families, and slaves. Henry C. Swanson, known as Colonel, owned a farm east of Palestine, later operated a mercantile store in town, and bought the land around the cemetery from Elisha Main, Micam Main's son and heir, in 1854. Slaves and former slaves of Henry Clay Swanson and James M. Swanson, along with African Americans from Anderson County and nearby areas, were buried here. Descendants of slaves attended funerals here from 1872 to the late 1940s and early 1950s, and a young girl was among the last buried in the late 1940s. Those interred also include Tom Swanson, a former slave from Virginia to whom Henry Swanson left $100, two of his brothers, and their descendants. The cemetery is believed to contain 36 marked graves and about 23 unmarked graves, and it is the final resting place of many people whose labor built Anderson County, Houston County, and Texas.

Palestine, Texas · United States