Next Cemetery Meeting

October 26, 2024 - 9 a.m. to Noon

The History of Peebles Cemetery

Polk County, Texas

The history of the Peebles Cemetery in Polk County, Texas cannot be told without also telling the story of the three Peebles brothers, Isham, Riley and Wiley, who moved to Polk County, Texas from Henry County, Alabama in the mid 1850s.  Peebles Cemetery started on land owned by Wiley Peebles but was used by many other families.  His descendents transferred 4.52 acres of land containing the cemetery to trustees for the cemetery on January 19, 1916.  Isham, Riley and Wiley Peebles are all buried in Peebles Cemetery, but only Riley has a marker at his grave.  In the 1960s, Reba Lowe Jenkins, a great, great granddaughter collected money from Riley’s descendents to purchase a marker for his grave.  Approximately a hundred years had passed since Riley Peebles death, but he still had grandchildren alive who knew the location of his grave.  She also collected money for a marker for the grave of her great, great grandfather Frederick Jackson Williams.  There is also a family marker for Wiley Peebles and other members of his family in the vicinity of where they are buried.  Isham Peebles’ descendents say that he is buried in the Peebles Cemetery although there is no marker for him. 

The Peebles brothers did not come alone to Texas.  At least six other intermarried families, Brocks, Galloways, Oates, Purvis, Wilkinsons and Williams, came with them.  The patriarchs of these families were already in their late forties and early fifties.  The entire families came including the married children and their spouses.  Other family connections followed over the next few years.  These included Mathesons, Cokers, Youngs and Coxes.  The center of the area where most of these newcomers settled was several miles northeast of the cemetery and was originally called the Henry County Settlement.  Soon a church and school were built and the name was changed to Providence.  Most of the earliest graves in Peebles Cemetery are the graves of these pioneer families.  Their descendents are still being buried there today. 

The earliest marked grave in Peebles Cemetery is that of Mary E. Turner who died in 1861. Her tombstone states that she was the first wife of Simeon Turner.  The second wife of Simeon Turner, Emmaline Turner, was buried there in 1867.  Simeon Turner died in 1890 and was also buried in Peebles Cemetery.  His third wife was Mary Ann Brock who outlived him many years and is buried in the Bold Springs Cemetery.  Riley Peebles died in 1867 and Wiley died in 1870.  Wiley does not have many descendants in the cemetery, but Riley has hundreds of descendants buried there.  Most of them do not have the Peebles last name as Riley had eight daughters and only three sons. There are only about thirty marked graves between 1861 and 1900.  Since the cemetery soon expanded to serve all the people in the area, there certainly are many more unmarked ones.  A picture of the cemetery in the early 1900s shows the little fenced houses around some of the graves.

The land to the west of the cemetery was unsettled timberland until the railroad arrived in 1879.  The town that grew up around the railroad depot was named Goodrich.

Many grandchildren and great grandchildren of Riley Peebles lived there over the next hundred years.  The town grew rapidly between 1900 and 1910 with the arrival of five large family groups from Mississippi.  The Edmonds, Craigs, Hendersons, Walters and Moffetts came and stayed and buried their dead in Peebles Cemetery.  As the population of the area around Providence and Goodrich grew, more land was needed for the cemetery.  Four additional tracts of land adjacent to the cemetery were acquired between 1973 and 1989.  According to deed records for Polk County, the cemetery now consists of 20.922 acres.  At present, there are about thirty-five hundred known graves in the cemetery.

History provided by Annette Lowe.

Board Members

Peebles Cemetery is a not-for-profit cemetery association and all board members are volunteers who donate their time.

Contact us.

peeblescemetery@gmail.com

Beverly Athey (936) 328-6647

Mailing Address:

4003 Hwy 190 West

Livingston, TX 77351