San Augustine City Cemetery

Originally the family cemetery of J. C. Anderson, the San Augustine City Cemetery dates back to the 1830s.

Prominent San Augustine citizens' graves there include Col. Stephen W. Blount, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence; Dr. George L. Crocket, Historian; and Benjamin F. Benton, CSA Captain.

The Story of the City Cemetery’s Guardian Angel

Columbus Cartwright (1837-1901), his wife Sallie Lane Cartwright, and their son Clinton Cartwright are buried beneath the Angel in the San Augustine City Cemetery.

Columbus, the oldest son of Matthew and Amanda Holman Cartwright, and the grandson of John and Polly Crutchfield Cartwright, was born in San Augustine, Texas, August 23, 1837.

Columbus grew up in the two-story Cartwright house in the 600 block of East Main, and prowled the red dirt streets of a young San Augustine where his father owned a downtown mercantile business until 1847. Columbus served in Colonel Lane’s regiment in the Confederate Army throughout the Civil War.

Matthew, Columbus’ father, died in 1870. At the time of his death, he was one of the largest landowners in Texas. He had acquired extensive land holdings by riding horseback throughout the settled portions of the state. He owned a horse he claimed to have ridden over 20,000 miles. Others claimed he could spend the night anywhere in Texas and sleep on his own land.

After the Civil War, Columbus returned to San Augustine, and because of his family’s vast land empire, he spent the rest of his career in real estate. A tall, slender man, he loved horses and was a respected horse breeder. He has 16 descendents buried in the San Augustine City Cemetery.

In 1897 he deeded an entire block (lots 221-228) to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. This land gift contained one dominant provision—that a certain portion of the premises by set apart for hitching horses and standing room for buggies. To this day, on the southwest corner of the block, a 15 feet hitching rack is available to all who might come by horseback or by buggy.

Sallie Lane Cartwright was the great-granddaughter of Joel Lane, a colonel in the American Revolution. Colonel Lane gave 1,000 acres to establish the original town site of what is now Raleigh, North Carolina.

The angel was placed in the City Cemetery in 1898. An identical angel was placed over the grave of Matthew Cartwright at the same time in Terrell, Texas. In 1943 the angel’s wing was broken when a tornado ripped through San Augustine. The broken wing section was preserved through the years and was repaired in 1992.