CONTRIBUTED BY: Mrs. Abbie (Sallie Richards) Whitton and Mrs. J. M. (Maxie Whitton) Martin

LOCATION: Go two and 7/10ths miles from the San Augustine County Courthouse north on State Highway #147; turn right (east) on Tinsley Road. Go 4/10ths of a mile. The Anthony Cemetery is located about two hundred feet to the left in a pasture that is now over grown with pine trees. This was once the home place of Rodney Anthony. The exact location of this cemetery is not known, but it has been described in years past as being near the old home site.

EARLY SETTLER: Rodney Anthony was born in North Carolina about 1805. He emigrated to Texas from Tennessee in 1831 with his family settling in the Ayish Bayou District. Prior to his entrance into Texas, he married Synthia Brown, born about 1805 in North Carolina. To this union at least nine children were born: Sarah Catherine, b.1823 (ma=Jacob McIntosh); Patterson, b. 1825 (ma=Mary Jane Arnold); Fanny A.1 b. 1927; Samaria A., b. 1829 (ma=Richard M. Boyd); Samuel M., b. 1631/32 TX; Delilah Jane, b. 1633/34 (ma William Morris.); Elvira A., b. 1636 (ma ___ Winn); Synthia, b. 1838 (ma=Irons Chumley); William F. b. 1842 TX (ma=Nancy ___ )

Between 1870-1878 Synthia died and was buried near their home site. On February 9, 1879, Rodney married Lucy Ann Foote, the widow of John T. Bridges. She was born about 1823 either in South Carolina or Alabama. About 1890 Rodney Anthony died and was buried in the family cemetery. It is not known when Lucy died, she is not enumerated in 1900 Census of San Augustine County. The burial site of Lucy Ann Foote Bridges Anthony or John Bridges is not known. It is presumed both are buried in unmarked graves in this vicinity of San Augustine County.

It was on the property of Rodney Anthony that became the first meeting place for the earliest Church of Christ in Texas. Dr. William Defee, a medical doctor and minister, who had arrived in the Ayish Bayou District in 1833 and began teaching and preaching in different homesone being the home of Rodney Anthony. By 1836 this home had become their regular meeting place. Later, the small group of Christians established themselves in a log building near the Anthony home and continued to meet there until about 1870, when they began to meet in another log building on the site where the present day Antioch Church of Christ building now stands, four and one half miles north of San Augustine on State Highway #147.

DATA: The identities of only three people are known to be buried in the Anthony Cemetery, and their graves are unmarked. It is surmised that the Anthony child and McIntosh child listed on the 1850 San Augustine County Mortality Schedule, are buried here. In all probability there are other members of the Anthony family buried in the small cemetery whose names have long been forgotten.

Mrs. Eva Douglas (now deceased), born 1890, and who lived in this area, said that when she was very young, maybe about 1900, that she and her parents went to a funeral of a very young girl, but she could not recall the name.