Lavon, Collin County, Texas

Cemeteries of Texas Coordinator: Dolores I. Bishop

Information provided by the State of Texas Atlas Site Location: in picnic area off US 78, just N of the intersection of US 78 and FM 6, about one mile north of Lavon Marker : John Abston (1761-1856), a soldier in the American Revolution, was a native of Virginia. In the 1830s Abston and his family moved to Missouri. In 1853 he moved to Collin County, Texas, with the family of his son Jesse. Following Jesse's death that year, the family moved farther south in the county. John Abston and Jesse Abston's widow, Sarah, purchased land in this area in 1854. A small plot of land was set aside as a family burial ground. John Abston's burial here in 1856 was the first in the cemetery. There are thirty-seven marked graves, including those of several generations of the Abston and related families. All but one of the stones bear 19th-century death dates. According to family tradition, Sarah Abston at one time gave a small house and a parcel of land to a former slave, Elias Bellew, with the agreement that he would maintain the cemetery. As a result, the graveyard has also been referred to as the Old Bellew Cemetery. Descendants of those interred in this cemetery still reside in Collin County. The graveyard stands as a reminder of the area's heritage. (1988)***