Sawyer Cemetery

The Sawyer Cemetery is located just inside Fayette County on the 3D Ranch off Old Smithville Road. (This is Zapalac Road on the other side of the county line in Bastrop County.) The cemetery is located past the foreman's house on a tree-covered hill overlooking a small lake 1.15 miles from the main gate.

Robert and Nancy Sawyer

The cemetery sits on property that belonged to Robert and Nancy Rice Sawyer who came to Texas from Louisiana before 1852. Martha Sawyer Peveto, great-greatgranddaughter of Robert Sawyer, visited her ancestor's resting place on November 25, 2008 and found that most of the markers have been broken over the years. Her grandfather told her there are unmarked graves of other Sawyers here, including Robert's son, Daniel Arthur Sawyer, 1926, and Daniel's wife, Origon (or Oregon) Cordelia Miller Sawyer, 1913. Their markers were wooden and decayed long ago, but commercial quality sandstone markers remain for four of their children who died young. Robert's wife, Nancy Rice Sawyer, 1827-???, his father, Edmund Sawyer, 1785-1875, and Moses and Matilda Jane Allen Brazil, great-grandparents of Origon Miller Sawyer, are also believed to be buried here. After Daniel's son, Frank Sawyer, sold the home place, burials were no longer made here. Frank and his wife are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery at Smithville.

Joe Cole visited this site on January 27, 1958 with the help of John Smith and four Brazel boys of Smithville. He reported: "Sawyers Cemetery, Public, on Bastrop-Fayette County Line one mile south of August Homuth's old home on Barton's Creek. Marble and rock stones; in Fayette County. John Smith's father is buried here. . . The two graves of brick and shellrock are said to be of the Turner family." His information came from John Smith and "four Brazil boys." [Joe Cole #013W]

Moses and Matilda Brazil

Norman C. Krischke visited and recorded the site on May 12, 1999. Krischke gave detailed instructions for finding the site in his booklet "Sawyer Cemetery" located in the Cemetery files along with this report. This booklet and additional research material on the Sawyer Family is available at the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives.

According to Krischke who used a divining rod to help locate graves, there are seven tombstones in the cemetery, plus six graves marked only with bricks and nineteen marked only with lillies.

All Sawyer family and cemetery photographs plus notes for marked graves were contributed by Martha Sawyer Peveto.

The entrance off Old Smithville Road and the cemetery's site on the hill.

Marked Graves
Name	Birth	Death	Inscriptions & Notes
Sawyer, Cordelia	3 Nov 1889	12 Nov 1891	"Daughter of D. A. & Origan Sawyer.";"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."
Sawyer, Donia A.	26 Jan 1879	6 Apr 1891	Daughter of Daniel and Origan Miller Sawyer
Sawyer, Henry D.	26 Jul 1877	23 Jan 1878	"Son of D. A. & Origan Sawyer"
Sawyer, L. E.	18 Oct 1895	29 Jun 1903	Louise Ethel Sawyer, daughter of Daniel and Origan Miller Sawyer; "Dearest child thou has left us and the loss we deeply felt. Tis the Lord that has bereft us of One we loved so well."
Sawyer, Robt.	1816	15 Feb 1894	"Rest for the Toiling Hand"
Smith, Georgie	c. 1848	4 Apr 1895	"Aged 47 Years"; nee Sherrell, married (1) Moses Bolt (2) J. T. "Tom" Smith
Smith, Nancy	1832	23 Jan 1901	"Wife of J. T. Smith. Aged 69 Years"; nee Rice; married (1) Robert Sawyer (2) J. Tom Smith on September 19, 1895 in Bastrop County


Robert Sawyer	Henry D. Sawyer	Donia Sawyer

Cordelia Sawyer	Louise Ethel Sawyer	Nancy Smith
	The lake as seen from the cemetery
Georgie Smith

Sawyer Cemetery

Robert and Nancy Sawyer

Moses and Matilda Brazil

Marked Graves

Robert Sawyer

Henry D. Sawyer

Donia Sawyer

Cordelia Sawyer

Louise Ethel Sawyer

Nancy Smith

The lake as seen from the cemetery

Georgie Smith

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