Brewer Cemetery

In January 1835, the Mexican Government approved Henry Brewer’s application for a league of land (4,000 acres). Early settlers built log cabins near springs. The primary activities were farming, raising livestock, and mining iron on Flowery Mountain. The peak, also known as Brewer Mountain, Iron Mountain and Panther Mountain, was part of Henry Brewer’s land and he built a home on top of the mountain. Henry and Susannah had eleven children, and when they moved from Mississippi with their younger children, many of their older children and their families also came to texas. Henry Brewer’s estate was probated after his death in 1867 and the land divided among the heirs, except for the family cemetery.

The cemetery provides a record of early Texas settlers, including veterans of the Texas War of Independence and the Civil War. Henry Brewer and his son John fought in the Battle of Nacogdoches in 1832. Henry Mitchel Brewer fought in the Battle of San Jacinto and John Brewer later served in the Confederacy. In 1936, the state of Texas erected a centennial marker honoring the contributions of the Brewer family to the settlement and history of Texas. It also serves as a grave marker for Henry, Susannah and Henry Mitchel Brewer. After the last burial in 1977 the cemetery became overgrown and forgotten, and many limestone markers were weathered and broken. Descendants agreed to restore and maintain the cemetery during a family reunion in 2001, incorporating the Brewer Cemetery Association of Nacogdoches County the following year. There is evidence of at least 50 unmarked graves. The cemetery is a chronicle of families who carved their homes and livelihoods from the surrounding forests and waterways.