McNeir Cemetery

Also known as McNeir Family Cemetery, this burial ground is the final resting place for Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix and her descendants. Her father, known as Major Ridge, was a Cherokee chief in Georgia. He and others were assassinated in 1839 over a controversial treaty. Sarah came to Texas in 1848 with her husband George Washington Paschal and settled in Galveston. There, in 1850, she treated yellow fever victims using a Cherokee remedy. She also divorced Paschal the same year. In 1856, she wed Charles Sisson Pix and moved to Smith Point, where their son, Charles Forest Pix, was born in 1857.

Tradition holds that at the age of seven, Charles Forest planted an acorn near the Pix home, and the resulting live oak tree later shaded the site of his grave. Although he died in 1874, his father, who had abandoned his family, delayed permission for the burial on the land until the next year. The site later passed to Emily Agnes Paschal McNeir, Sarah's daughter. Emily's husband, William, was the second buried here in what became known as McNeir Cemetery. Family members continue to maintain the small burial ground as a link to their rich history.

Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004.