Davis Cemetery

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Marker No: 15786

Texas historical Cemetery Marker

Geographic: ​32.14170, -95.77190

Location: From State Highway 19 on the south side of Athens, turn east on FM 1615 across from Athens Middle School; go about 2.6 miles along the FM road until it begins a large curve to the south, then turn turn off the FM road going straight on east down County Road 1411. 1.5 miles east of FM 1615, County Road 4514 will intersect on the south side. The cemetery is at the end of this short road.

Marker Text: This burial ground, named for the pioneering Davis family, has served this rural section of Henderson County since the mid-1800s. It was established in the early 1870s on property deeded by J.J. Deupree in 1883. The Baxter community, officially established by 1901 when it became a station for the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, is particularly represented here. Shortly after its founding, the community had a post office, stores, churches, cotton gins and a school.
    John L. Davis (d. 1873) came to Texas with his wife, Dorcas (Holland) (d. 1874), and their family by 1850. They settled in Henderson County before the Civil War. One of their sons, Archibald Mallard Davis, served as Henderson County sheriff. Others buried here include school trustee and community leader Willie E. Johnson (d. 1960); constable Morton G. Jepson (d. 1941); and Henderson County Chief Justice Samuel Tyne Owen (d. 1856), who has the earliest marked grave in the cemetery. Owen was reinterred here from another graveyard. The earliest interment in Davis Cemetery is of an infant, Ezra Davis (d. 1872). Also buried here are community leaders and veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War.
​     Additional property was added to the burial ground in 1952, 1989 and 1994. Cemetery features include vertical stones, curbing, unmarked graves and Woodmen of the World markers. In 1991, the Davis Cemetery Association incorporated to care for the burial ground and establish a trust fund. Today, Davis Cemetery endures as a record of the pioneering families that settled and lived in this portion of Henderson County. (2006)