ABSTON CEMETERY
SH 78
Historical Marker Text
ABSTON CEMETERY
JOHN ABSTON (1761-1856), A SOLDIER IN THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION, WAS A NATIVE OF VIRGINIA. IN THE 1830S
ABSTON
AND HIS FAMILY MOVED TO MISSOURI. IN 1853 HE MOVED
TO COLLIN COUNTY, TEXAS, WITH THE FAMILY OF HIS SON
JESSE. FOLLOWING JESSE’S DEATH THAT YEAR, THE FAMILY
MOVED FARTHER SOUTH IN THE COUNTY. JOHN ABSTON AND
JESSE ABSTON’S WIDOW, SARAH, PURCHASED LAND IN THIS
AREA IN 1854.
A SMALL PLOT OF LAND WAS SET ASIDE AS A FAMILY
BURIAL GROUND. JOHN ABSTON’S BURIAL HERE IN 1856 WAS
THE FIRST IN THE CEMETERY. THERE ARE THIRTY-SEVEN
MARKED GRAVES, INCLUDING THOSE OF SEVERAL GENERATIONS
OF THE ABTON AND RELATED FAMILIES. ALL BUT ONE OF
THE STONES BEAR 19TH-CENTURY DEATH DATES.
ACCORDING TO FAMILY TRADITION, SARAH ABSTON AT ONE
TIME GAVE A SMALL HOUSE AND A PARCEL OF LAND TO A
FORMER SLAVE, ELIAS BELLEW, WITH THE AGREEMENT THAT
HE WOULD MAINTAIN THE CEMETERY. AS A RESULT, THE
GRAVEYARD HAS ALSO BEEN REFERRED TO AS THE OLD
BELLEW CEMETERY.
DESCENDANTS OF THOSE INTERRED IN THIS CEMETERY
STILL RESIDE IN COLLIN COUNTY. THE GRAVEYARD STANDS
AS A REMINDER OF THE AREA’S HERITAGE. 1988
Cemeteries of Collin County, Texas, by Joy Gough
Location: West side of SH 78 about ½ mile north of FM
6, at the back of a picnic area, Lavon. A sign at the park says: Robert L.
Yielding Park, dedicated – 6/21/88, Courtesy of Roland Boyd Family, City of
Lavon, Army Corps of Engineers.
John Abston was buried here in 1856. He is the
only veteran of the Revolutionary War buried in North Texas.
Mt. Pleasant
Baptist Church was once a few hundred feet east of the cemetery. It started in
1857, and was disbanded in 1882, with part of the congregation going to Pleasant
Hill Baptist Church (South Church), which later became Nevada Baptist, and
part to Copeville Baptist Church (North Church).
The north end of this cemetery
was used for Negro burials, with the south end for white burials. The cemetery
has a historical marker.
This cemetery is shown in Collin County Tax maps as
being on the T. F. Roberts survey. Elias Belew deeded .62 acres of land for a
public cemetery in Vol 213, p 529, to Trustees, George Williams and W. F. Boyd.
There is some controversy over where Elias Belew, a former slave, got the land
around the cemetery originally. Some say he was given the land by the Abstons on
the condition that he maintain the cemetery. Another source says that the Belews
gave him the land under the same conditions. Both theories have to be wrong.
According the Collin County deed records, neither family owned land on the
Roberts survey, so they could not have given it to him, and Elias Belew paid
$1300+ for the land around the cemetery with the deed listed in Vol 12, p 126.
The information in A HISTORY OF NEVADA, TEXAS, by Grace (Moran) Evans, is also
wrong. The 3 deeds listed as the source of the land around the cemetery by the Belew family are all on the wrong headrights. When the land around the cemetery
was sold because one of the Belew daughters defaulted on a loan, the Boyd family
bought the land. A cemetery cannot be sold, and was not part of the transaction,
as was stated in that book.
The Abstons and the Stimsons came to Texas together
in 1842. John Abston's daughter, Sarah, married Daniel Stimson. The Abstons
owned land in the Rainer survey, which is the headright south of the Roberts
survey, and in several other nearby headrights. There are some Abston
descendants, who insist that this was the Abston Family Cemetery and that it is
on the Rainer survey. They also say that all of the deeds and tax maps
pertaining to the cemetery in the Collin County Courthouse have been forged or
tampered with.
Most of the people buried here, who have stones, are from the Abston family. The cemetery has numerous unmarked graves.
According to A HISTORY
OF NEVADA, TEXAS, the first person buried here was not John Abston in 1856. It
was Marcus C. Dupuy on about December 10, 1852. There is no marker for his
grave. On March 21, 1849, Marcus Dupuy bought all 320 acres of the T. F. Roberts
survey with the deed listed in Vol B, #277. This cemetery was probably started
as the Dupuy family cemetery. His widow, Eliza Dupuy, sold 150 acres to R. D.
McElroy (McLeroy) in Vol S, p 153.
As stated above, Elias Belew bought 75 ¾
acres of land around the cemetery from R. D. McLeroy in Vol 12, p 126. In COLLIN
COUNTY CEMETERY INSCRIPTIONS I, and in literature pertaining to the historical
marker, Elias Belew's name is spelled with 2 "l's" . The name is
French and is spelled with one "l". It is pronounced "Blue."
In the late 1980's Abston/Stimson relative, Roland Boyd, moved the stones from
the Stimson Family Cemetery in Allen to the Stimson family plot here.
John Abston
CEMETERY INDEX
Recommended citation:
"Abston
Cemetery, CEMETERIES OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin County,
Texas History and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries,
Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13, 2004].
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