11/25/2023
The tombstones in the Wells Cemetery are valuable historical resources. They provide information about the lives of the early settlers who followed migration trails across America to Caldwell County, Texas. We are so fortunate that, by simply pressing a few computer keys, we can take the information recorded on the tombstones and instantly learn about the individuals and families memorialized through the tombstones.
The cemetery property is part of the John R. Miller survey, east of Plum Creek, in the Seawillow Community. Records show that the land belonged to Samuel Lumpkin Wells in 1867. Samuel was born 27 Aug 1818 in Greene Cty., Georgia. His wife, Eliza Bennett McGinty, was born 3 Jun 1824 in Perry Cty., Alabama. They married 13 Sep 1838, in Perry Cty, AL. By the time of the gathering of the 1850 census information, the Wells family had moved to Panola County, MS, where they made their living by farming. Sometime between the birth of their daughters, Jeffie born in 1861, MS, and Geneva, born 1864, TX, the family joined related Wells, McGinty and Wright families and migrated together from Mississippi to Texas. Samuel’s brothers, Joseph and Walker, settled in Gonzales County but Samuel and Eliza continued their journey and settled in what is now known as the Seawillow Community in Caldwell County.
Before Samuel and Eliza acquired the property on which the Wells Cemetery is currently situated, local families in the area were already using the cemetery as a burial site for their loved ones. It is unknown to this writer, if the cemetery had another name prior to being dubbed the Wells Cemetery. The earliest recorded grave is that of 6 year old Martha Jackson, who died 23 Nov 1853. Another early burial was that of May Foreman, the 7 year old daughter of J.J. and Prisiler Fuller Foreman. May died 9 Oct 1854. Over the years, a number of Foreman descendants of J.J. and Prisiler were buried in the cemetery. The first record of a Wells family burial was that of Mae Wells, the unmarried daughter of Samuel and Eliza. She died 19 Jul 1866. Like the Foreman family, a number of Samuel and Eliza’s descendants are buried in the Wells Cemetery.
In 2005, the Texas Historical Commission certified Wells Cemetery as a Historic Texas Cemetery. Among the 40 or so marked gravesites in this cemetery are those of at least three veterans of the civil war and that of Seawill (Pipkin) Wells, for whom the former local community of Seawillow was named. The graves are laid out in a North to East fashion. The early settlers memorialized in the cemetery represent farmers, homemakers, doctors, ranchers, elected officials and other occupations necessary to make a community viable. They supported their churches, schools and other endeavors within the community. At its height, the community boasted a post office, school, church, and store. Family surnames represented in the cemetery are Wells, Foreman, Long, Kirksey, Kelly, Franks, Patterson, Jones, Chapman, Rogers, Wallis, Misenhimer, Dillard, Hendricks, Perry, Tally, Watts, and Henderson.
