In 1832, Elizabeth Ann Shaw Cartwright and her husband, Thomas Peter Cartwright Jr., moved their family of eleven children from Alabama to the Lake Creek settlement of Stephen F. Austin's second colony in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. They established farms, became active in the community, and by 1836 Thomas Peter Cartwright Jr. was justice of the peace for the Lake Creek settlement. When the Texas Revolution began in 1835, many men from the settlement joined the fighting, including two of their sons, Matthew Winston Cartwright and William Peter Cartwright. In 1835 Matthew fought in the Battle of Concepción and the Siege of Bexar, and in 1836 William Peter joined him for the Battle of San Jacinto. Later generations of Cartwrights continued to serve Texas through military service and law enforcement roles. In 1848, three years after her husband's death, Elizabeth purchased 112 acres of land that included their residence, an outbuilding, and a family graveyard. Elizabeth, Thomas Peter, their children, and seven generations of family members are buried there. The cemetery includes stone carvings and obelisks as well as some unmarked graves surrounded by natural grasses, and it is the final resting place of some of the earliest settlers and founders of Texas, along with veterans of the Texas Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm.