Claiborne Cemetery

UPON ARRIVING IN TEXAS, MOSES GAGE FIRST SETTLED HIS FAMILY IN BASTROP AND THEN BOUGHT 100 ACRES ALONG ALUM CREEK FROM HIS FATHER, REUBEN, IN 1837. OTHERS JOINED THE GAGES AND A SMALL COMMUNITY SOON FORMED. THE SETTLEMENT CAME TO BE KNOWN AS CRAFT’S PRAIRIE, PROBABLY FOR THE FAMILY OF EARLY AREA SETTLER SAMUEL CRAFT.

GEORGIA NATIVE JOHN BLACK ARRIVED IN BASTROP COUNTY IN 1836, AND IN 1842 HE MARRIED MOSES AND ELIZABETH GAGE’S DAUGHTER, GABRIELLA. BLACK, ALONG WITH HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW LUDWELL RECTOR, PURCHASED ALMOST 2,000 ACRES ALONG ALUM CREEK, INCLUDING THIS SITE, IN 1849. GABRIELLA BLACK’S BROTHER, SHERLY GAGE, DIED ON NOVEMBER 19, 1850, AND HE WAS LAID TO REST HERE, ON A GENTLE RISE ON THE WEST BANK OF LITTLE ALUM CREEK. A CEMETERY WAS SOON FORMED AS MEMBERS OF THE BLACK, RECTOR AND GAGE FAMILIES WERE BURIED HERE THROUGH THE 1860s. ALSO, APPROXIMATELY THIRTY SLAVES BELONGING TO THE FAMILIES WERE BURIED IN THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE SITE. OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CRAFT’S PRAIRIE SETTLEMENT BEGAN TO USE THE CEMETERY REGULARLY DURING THE LATE 1800s.

IN 1882, JOHN AND GABRIELLA BLACK GAVE LAND ON WHICH THE CEMETERY SITS TO THEIR DAUGHTER, MARTHA JANE, WIFE OF JOHN DYER CLAIBORNE. THE CLAIBORNES ARE BURIED IN THE CEMETERY, AND BEFORE MARTHA CLAIBORNE DIED IN 1936, SHE OFFICIALLY ESTABLISHED A CEMETERY AT THIS SITE, WHICH SHE CALLED “BLACK-CLAIBORNE-RECTOR CEMETERY.” AN ANNUAL FAMILY REUNION WAS BEGUN IN 1947, AND ATTENDEES FORMED THE CLAIBORNE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, WHICH OVERSEES THE SITE. THE CEMETERY CONTINUES TO BE USED TODAY BY AREA RESIDENTS AND BY DESCENDANTS OF THE BLACK, CLAIBORNE AND RECTOR FAMILIES.