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Dunham-Wood Cemetery

by Betty Dunn

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The Dunham-Wood Cemetery

By Betty Dunn 

The early Dunham-Wood Cemetery located on the historic Jared Groce league in the southwest corner of Grimes County is in the process of being restored by descendants. The above photo taken five years ago in 2007 no longer depicts the cemetery. Some trees as well as brush have been removed and broken tablet slab grave covers have and are being renovated along with other markers. It will eventually be fenced off from grazing cattle. 

This cemetery is located off Grimes County Road 323, south of Highway 2. The cemetery is on private property well off the road. No trespassing is allowed. The cemetery became lost and possibly unknown sometime during the early 20th century as the land became overgrown with thickets and trees. In the 1930s, the Grimes County Heritage and History book published in 1982 states that Joe Bass was searching for a lost cow in the then overgrown pasture and stumbled across the grave stones rediscovering the cemetery. In 2009, descendants of the Dunham and Wood families began the restoration of this historic cemetery. 

Lourania/Lewrania Dunham, widow of Daniel A. Dunham, is the earliest burial found in the cemetery. She died December 26, 1844, at about age 60 years. Her husband, Daniel A., purchased the Jared Groce property shortly after Groce’s death in November of 1836. Dunham then returned to Tennessee to get his family. The Grimes County History of 1982 states that on the family’s way to Texas Daniel died in Louisiana. The family, that included eight of their nine children, continued on to Texas. A neighboring family named Wood intermarried with the Dunhams. This cemetery became the families burial grounds. (Groce, himself, was buried at his Bernardo Plantation south of Hempstead, according to the Handbook of Texas.) 

On an historical note, Robert H. Dunham, son of Daniel and Lourania/Lewrania Dunham, was captured by the Mexican Army in March 1843 as a member of the Meir Expedition at Salado Creek in Mexico. He was one of the seventeen Texans to draw a black bean and executed on the 25th. A letter Robert wrote to his mother on the eve of his execution survives and is reportedly in the Alamo Archives in San Antonio. The event, historians believe, was partly the cause of Lourania’s/Lewrania’s early death shortly afterwards in 1844. Robert’s remains, as well as all the sixteen others executed of the Meir Expedition, were eventually removed from Mexico and buried in a concrete vault at Monument Hill just outside of LaGrange. 

An eldest son, Daniel T. ‘Tom’ Dunham, is listed as the first postmaster of the nearby Retreat Post Office established following the forming of the Republic of Texas. This recorder is unable to learn more about him except that he is listed in the Texas Census in 1846. In the 1850 U. S. Census he is recorded as living in the household of his brother Joseph H. Dunham and at that time was 36 years of age. No death or burial records have been found. Descendants continue to search for his records. 
Picture
Also known to be buried in the Dunham-Wood cemetery are: 

John H. Dunham, son of Daniel A. & Lourania/Lewrania Dunham, born Tipton County, Tennessee Sept 19, 1828; died Nov 11, 1853, age 25 years, 1 month, 25 days. 

The following three persons are all identified on a single four-sided stone and marked with a Masonic Emblem on the 4th side: 

Joseph H. Dunham, 4th son of Daniel A. & Lourania/ Lewrania Dunham, born near Nashville, Tennessee on March 20, 1819 and died June 14, 1884 at 65 years, 2 months and 25 days, and the following Adeline and Sarah C.: Adeline (Wood), (lst wife) of Joseph H. Dunham, 2nd daughter of James & Mary Wood, born Jan. 15, 1827; married June 3, 1841 and died Aug. 10, 1845. Sarah C., relict (2nd wife) of Joseph H. Dunham and daughter of Henry and Sophia C. Cotten, born April 24, 1824; married Dec. 12, 1848 and died Jan. 26, 1891. 

(Name Not Visible), grandson of Captain J. Tipton, who fell in St. Clair’s defeat, of Tennessee. (The battle of St. Clair defeat was an Indian battle in 1791 in the Ohio Territory also known as the Battle of the Wabash River.) This grandson’s name was Landon B. Tipton. He was the son of Jacob and Lorna Tipton; born Carter County, East Tennessee on Dec. 29, 1819; died Dec………, Austin County, Texas at age 28 years. (He was a grandson of Captain J. Tipton and Nancy Taylor.) John Maxwell’s book has Tipton’s death date as 1847. 
David S. Hill from Franklin County, North Carolina, born Oct. 22, 1814; died Dec. 15, 1869. 

Mrs. L. A. Hill, late consort of D. S. Hill, born Davidson County, Tennessee Jan. 30, 1821; died Oct. 8, 1874. 

James Wood, born Lexington Co., Kentucky, May 20, 1785; died Austin County, Texas Dec. 31, 1869 at 84 years, 7 mos., 11 days. 

Mary Finley, wife of James Wood, born New Madrid County, Missouri; born Oct. 22, 1793; married April 5, 1812; died Nov 14, 1866. 

Stephen H. Johns, son of John & Mary Johns, born Davidson County, Tennessee on March 23, 1819; died in Austin County, Texas Oct. 20, 1852 and on same four-sided stone are: 

Emily Johns, daughter of James and Mary Wood born Maringo County, Alabama, May 22, 1829; died in Grimes County, Texas on July 20, 1849. 

Mrs. Ann Rogers and Infant Son John D., died Dec. 14th and 15th, 1847. 

Frances Kathleen Wood, daughter of Robert and Martha Wood, died July 1, 1857, age 6 years. 

Mrs. M. J. Wood, died Oct. 2nd, 1852 at 22 years, 9 months, 15 days. 

Robert F. Wood, died May 14, 1855, age 41 years. 

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The Grimes County Heritage and History book of 1982 states that after Lourania/ Lewrania Dunham’s death her heirs sold off a portion of the former Groce estate property to Dougald McAlpine. McAlpine, another prominent settler in southwest Grimes County, established Courtney and later donated land for the Courtney Cemeteries as well as the Fairview near Whitehall. 

Thank you.


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