Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Requests for Info
Received via Website
Received via Website
2016-07-27
Lisa Fitzgerald
mwljherring(AT)me(DOT)com
1002 CR 145
Sweetwater, Texas 79556
I am researching my great grandparents George Wilson Payne and Nancy Ann McCoy Payne. They came to Texas
from MS some time after 1877, assumably to Milam County.
The only record I have found so far is in family bibles that say they had one son born in Milam County in
1879, George Rufus Payne, who died in 1880 and was "buried by the Lebanon Church".
Another "infant son" was born later in 1880 and is also buried "in the Lebanon Church yard".
I understand that supposedly the Lebanon Cemetery and San Andres are one in the same. I don't find any
Paynes listed on findagrave.com in the San Andres Cemetery. If you have a complete listing of all the
headstones in San Andres Cemetery I would appreciate it if you could check to see if there are any Paynes.
The family would have only been in Milam County from 1877 at the earliest to 1882 at the latest. Thank you
for your help.
Lisa Fitzgerald
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2016-07-27
Email forwarded to MCHC members and others with interest/knowledge of Milam County history.
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2016-07-27
Ms Fitzgerald,
Thank you for contacting the Milam County Historical Commission.
I have looked thru the reference book "170 Years of Cemetery Records In Milam County, Texas by Norinne Holder
Holman. This was compiled by visits to the cemeteries and research of Milam County Records by Mrs Holman.
I find no Paynes buried in San Andres-Lebanon Cemetery.
There are many Paynes buried in Milam County but I do not find George or Nancy in any of the cemeteries.
Please realize that these records were collected by visits to the cemetery and research of Cemetery and Milam
County records. There probably are burials which are not marked and no County record of the burial.
I will forward your email to the members of the Milam County Historical Commission and to others interested in
M.C. history. Perhaps someone may have additional information that may be of help to you.
Thank you
Jerry Caywood
MCHC Web Administrator
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2016-07-27
Ms. Fitzgerald,
My wife and I are intimately familiar with the San Andres/Lebanon Cemetery. Community volunteers, County
Community Service obligated individuals and ourselves have spent many hours improving what was once a very
neglected/ deplorable cemetery. Http://www.milamcountyhistoricalcommission.org/cemetery_san_andres.php
I'll also add that the cemetery desperately needs a mowing at the present time.
I am able to tell you factually that there are no visible existing Payne headstones in the cemetery unless
buried and we missed them while probing the 2 1/2 ac. cemetery property. There are just a few headstones that
currently need repair. There are many Pauper type plots in the cemetery marked merely with brick surrounds,
brick crosses and/ or lily's. Some locations had rusted temporary markers where permanent headstones were
never placed. That being said, there is a possibility that one or more of these locations may be that of your
ancestors.
If the Lebanon Methodist Episcopal Church South kept any records of the interred during it's existence from
1890 until 1921 when it was destroyed in the 1921 flood of the San Gabriel River, they were washed away in the
flood. It appears that your ancestors predated the Church. Since the Lebanon Church played such a dominant
role in the San Andres community, it's believed that the community took on both names which carried on over to
the cemetery. The church was situated fairly close to the river although the cemetery was located on the crest
of a hill about 1100 feet or more away and unaffected by the flood. I have yet to determine the exact location
of the church w/o a survey of what is now private property.
Ms. Fitzgerald, please reply if I may be of further assistance to you. I wish that I could have fulfilled your
request.
Respectfully,
Jack Brooks
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2016-07-27
Thank you for your response and thank you for all your work on the cemetery! In both instances the burials
were for babies - a six month old and a newborn so there might have been very little in the way of a marker.
Thanks again.
Lisa Fitzgerald
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2016-07-29
I did a photo inventory of Lebanon/San Andreas just in the last year. All pictures were listed on FindaGrave.
I believe there were more listings on FindaGrave than in the 150/170 year books as well. I would trust that
the family Bible has the correct information and the gravestone, if there was one, was lost to time. Thus, I
would list on Findagrave and put the source as the family Bible.
candhjentsch@farm-market.net
(I assume this was sent to Lisa Fitzgerald)
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