Came to Texas from North Carolina in 1835 and settled in this area, in what was then part of Nacogdoches County. He received a land grant in Lamar County for his service in the Indian wars of the late 1830s, but retained his homestead in Rusk County and was the patriarch of a large family. He set aside part of his homestead for this family cemetery upon the death of his first wife, Caroline, in 1852.