Hyden-Hughes Cemetery

The Hyden-Hughes Cemetery is located about 10 miles south of Groesbeck on FM 937. It is a small family cemetery that contains the graves of Alexander Hyden, his wife Wilmoth Jane, and several of his descendants. 

Alexander Hyden was born in Lee County, Virginia on October 10, 1812. He was the son of James G. Hyden (1787-1852) and Nancy Lydia Anglin (1792-1850). In 1830, when Alex was 18 years old, his father moved the family to Edgar County, Illinois to join his in-laws who had been living there for about ten years. When the Anglins migrated to Texas with the Parker group, who would eventually build Fort Parker in present-day Limestone County, the Hyden family remained in Illinois for a while longer before moving to Crawford County, Missouri. It was here that Alexander married Ellender Glenn (1823-1846) in 1837.

Alexander and Ellender Hyden had three children while living in Missouri. They were Jemima D., Lydia Lucinda, and James A. Hyden. Alexander and Ellender moved with his parents and the rest of his family to Texas about 1846. Sometime after arriving in Texas, Ellender became ill and died. Family tradition states that Alex took boards from the wagon to construct a coffin and buried her along the Trinity River in what is now downtown Dallas.

The Hayden family then continued south. Alexander’s parents settled in Ellis County, but Alexander and his three young children continued on to Limestone County, where he first lived in a cedar log house near Springfield that was owned by his cousin, William Anglin. Alexander soon met a young widow named Wilmoth Jane Sparks Gentry, who had moved with her uncle, Willoughby Sparks, to Texas after the death of her husband. 

Wilmoth Jane Sparks was born April 10, 1828 in Tennessee. Her parents were Bailey and Sarah Martha Nolan Sparks. She married William Gentry in Yalobusha County, Mississippi on January 27, 1848. Their daughter, Sarah Ann, was born in Choctaw County, Mississippi on December 1, 1849. William died in 1849 either shortly before or after the birth of his daughter. 

Alexander and Wilmoth Jane were married sometime after 1850. They had several children including William Alexander, Mary S., Rowland A., Bailey Hawkins, and Eady Penithia. 

Marriages of the children of Alexander and Wilmoth Jane Hyden are as follows: Jemima married Francis Marion Goff who soon died. She then married William Jack Rasco. Lydia married James Edward Clendennen. James A. married Nancy Adeline Jordan. William Alexander married Sarah Herrod. Bailey married Daisy Dean Ellis. Eady married Jake Hughes. Mary S. married William B. Ingle. Wilmoth Jane’s oldest daughter, Sarah Ann Gentry, married John Edward Bates.

Soon after arriving in Limestone County, Alexander first purchased land from his uncle Elisha Anglin about three miles southeast of Springfield on the east side of the Navasota River. He later sold this land and moved to property that he purchased on the west side of the Navasota River, which was located about 10 miles southeast of Groesbeck near the community of Box Church. The Hyden-Hughes Cemetery is located on a portion of this land. Alexander helped to build one of the first cotton gins in Limestone County for Anthony Sharp. He used a broad axe that he brought from Missouri to split the timbers, which was donated to the Limestone County Museum by his grandson, Otis Durham. He also served four terms as county commissioner from 1852 to 1860.

Alexander Hyden died on March1, 1888 and was buried in the family cemetery. After his death, the land was divided among his wife Wilmoth Jane and his surviving children William Alexander, Eady, Bailey, Jemima, and Lydia. Eady inherited tract three, which contained approximately 40 acres. The cemetery was located on this tract. Eady and her husband, J. C. Hughes, sold the property to E. D. and M. A. Slaughter on December 17, 1895. They later sold it to Sol Nussbaum and Louis Scharff of the Nussbaum & Scharff firm on October 22, 1903, who later sold it to B. L. Lenamon on September 17, 1904. Mr. Lenamon and his wife deeded the property to their daughter, Lillian Engram, on November 10, 1917. The Hyden-Hughes Cemetery was set aside as a cemetery on October 29, 1926 when Lillian and her husband, J. E. Engram, deeded 1/7 of an acre on which the cemetery was located to J. C. and Eady Hyden Hughes, trustees of the “Alexander Hyden Family Cemetery.” 

Wilmoth Jane Hyden died May 17, 1896 and was buried next to Alexander. Their graves are marked by a single tombstone and are enclosed by a wrought iron fence. Other marked graves in the cemetery are those of Eady Hyden Hughes (1865-1947) and her husband Jacob C. Hughes, Eady’s sons Luther D. Hughes (1888-1889) and Arthur Hughes (1885-1886), Rowland Hyden (1859-1870), Mary S. Hyden Ingle (1855-1881) and her daughter Lyda P. Ingle (1880-1881), and Jemima D. Hyden Rasco (1839-1895). There are also eight graves marked with rocks.