Mary Elizabeth (nee White) Stockton (1842-1916)

Mrs. D. H. Stockton Passes Away

The Tribune is called upon this week to chronicle the death of another of the early settlers of Bartlett and vicinity in the person of Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Stockton, wife of D. H. Stockton, her death occurring at the family residence a few miles west of town, Monday night at 12 o'clock, after a brief illness. She was taken ill Friday and suffered intensely and the end came as a blessed relief for her weary body.

The funeral was held at the family home, Tuesday afternoon at 5 o'clock, Rev. J. C. Rhodes assisted by Rev. Homer McCarty, conducting the services. The body was borne to the family cemetery by her five sons, for interment, and with a song and prayer the weary form of a good woman, a devoted wife and loving mother, was laid to rest, and the grave banked high with the sweetest flowers, mute testimony of stricken aching hearts, whose love must find expression.

Mary Elizabeth White was born at Victoria, Texas, December 3, 1842, and died May 15, 1916, at the ripe age of 73 years, 5 months and 12 days. She was married to Douglas Hayden Stockton who survives her, December 28, 1859. They moved to this section forty-seven years ago, locating where the home now stands, and where seven years ago the celebrated their fiftieth anniversary of married live. Fourteen children were born to them, eleven of whom are living, and all were present at the funeral. Also, 32 grand children and three great grand children survive them.

She was a devout member of the Baptist Church, and was ever kind and thoughtful of the needy and unfortunate people on earth. Patience, kindness and cheerfulness were characteristic of this gentle woman, and it could be said of her that she "went about doing good."

To the bereft companion and motherless children, we extend condolence. Sorrow is the portion of all, and when life's work is finished and one of our number is called home to eternal joy we should not sorrow as those who have no hope, but look up and find comfort and consolation in the never failing promises of God, whose healing is balm to the wounded soul.

The Bartlett Tribune and News
Bartlett, Texas
Friday, May 16, 1916

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STOCKTON FAMILY CEMETERY

The Stockton Family Cemetery is located on land originally granted in 1859 by Texas Governor Hardin R. Runnels to Moses Allen, a veteran of the Siege of Bexar. Douglas Hayden Stockton and his wife Mary Elizabeth (White) brought their family to Bell County in 1870. With partner J.O. Darby, the Stocktons purchased over 1,200 acres of the Moses Allen Land Grant that year. The Stocktons soon built a residence near this site.

This cemetery was established in April 1890 upon the death of the Stocktons' fifteen-year-old son, Simion Carothers Stockton. Years later, on December 15, 1908, Douglas and Mary Elizabeth Stockton legally designated this property as a family cemetery.

The cemetery, which contains over eighty graves and is still in use by the Stocktons' descendants, documents over one hundred years of family history. Those interred here include Douglas and Mary Elizabeth Stockton and twelve of their fourteen children; Ead White, a former slave who remained with the family after the Civil War; numerous children and infants; and three family members who drowned in a hurricane in Corpus Christi in 1919.

Texas Historical Commission, 1991

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