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Born in Georgia, Jacob Montgomery Shannon (1804-1878) came to Texas at the age of 17, while the region was under Mexican rule. He married Catherine "Kittie" Yoakum in 1823, and in 1831 Shannon received a league of land in this vicinity, where he built a home and settled with his family. The community that grew up near his plantation became known as Shannon's Prairie. The cemetery at this site was established about 1840 with the burial of Dock Providence in an unmarked grave. The two earliest marked graves bear the date 1854. They are for a child, Catherine Hemphill, and for Jacob Shannon's mother, Margaret Montgomery Shannon (b. 1772). The cemetery came to be used by other residents of the area, and in 1863, Jacob Shannon formally deeded 2 acres of his land for a public burial ground, school, and church. Many members of Shannon's family are buried here, as are some of his slaves and their descendants. The graveyard also contains the burials of several war veterans. The names on the tombstones in the Jacob Shannon Evergreen Cemetery help record some of the history of this area of Montgomery County. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004 |
