May 2006

Robert Merritte WEBB, GGGGrandson of James S. Edgar (b. 1790) and Selah Witherington (b 1794), organized a family visit

to the Edgar Family Cemetery; also in attendance were Jim Skelton

"Bob Webb, Snake Hunter"

"Bob braved the abandoned Edgar family cemetery to catalog some of the old family graves there. The cemetery dates back

to the Civil War days. It is located southwest of Yoakum off the Cuero highway on the now Jackson Ranch."

Date Taken: May 8, 2006

Place Taken: Edgar Cemetery, DeWitt Co., Texas

Photo Owner: Jim Skelton

Comments from Robert Webb:

The two gravestones in the foreground are James' (first) and Selah's (nearest to me). The small one I am clearing the grass

around is a fairly large fieldstone (sandstone) marker that has deteriorated over the years. If there were ever any

inscription on it, it's totally gone now.

We believe that large fieldstone may mark the spot where my great great grandfather, Arthur S. Edgar (b. 1828), was buried

after his untimely, accidental death in October 1863 at the age of only 35. When he died, he left a widow, Harriet Elizabeth

Brown (b. 1839), who was only 24 years old then, and two small children, Perry Eugene Edgar, my great grandfather, who was

only 6 years old when his father died, and Arthur Lee Edgar who was only 3.

If this grave site is really Arthur's, it would have been one of the first burials (maybe THE first) in that family cemetery. He died

before either of his parents, and we speculate that he was buried in "spot 3," with spots 1 and 2 reserved for his parents

(James and Selah) who were later buried in those spots. The survey Patsy Goebel did of that cemetery in December 1987

does not show any dates of death earler than when Arthur died in 1863. Of course, there may be some unmarked graves

there, or other ones with deteriorated fieldstone markers.

The fact that there was not a more prominent marker erected to mark this gravesite may have been due to the family's limited

financial resources and the hard times in Texas at the time including the adverse effects of the ongoing Civil War. That's my

latest theory, anyway, for where Arthur S. Edgar was buried.

Robert Webb, August 2006