Perryman Cemetery — Forestburg, Texas

Perryman Cemetery sits 0.3 miles north of FM 455 on Perryman Cemetery Road, approximately 1.5 miles west of the Forestburg town center. The approach is straightforward — a short drive north off the farm-to-market road, cemetery visible from the road. The ground it occupies has been receiving burials since 1862, when an unnamed infant was laid here. That first burial preceded the formal legal establishment of the cemetery by twenty-one years. The story of how those two events relate — the informal community burial of 1862 and the formal county deed of 1883 — is the central story of Perryman Cemetery.

The 1883 Donation and What It Meant

In 1883, Levi Perryman purchased the cemetery property and deeded it to Montague County. The 1983 Texas Historical Commission marker (HMdb m=290746), erected one hundred years after the transfer, records the transaction and explains its significance: by placing the land in county hands with a perpetual-care obligation, Perryman converted what had been an informally maintained private or community burial ground into a permanent public cemetery backed by governmental authority.

The timing matters. By 1883, the cemetery had been in use for twenty-one years. The earliest marked grave — the 1862 infant — represented a community that had been burying its dead here through the Civil War, through the most intense years of Comanche raiding in Montague County, and into the post-war stabilization period. The families of those buried here had been maintaining the ground informally, without any legal guarantee that it would remain a cemetery. Perryman’s purchase and deed created that guarantee.

Why Perryman? The 1983 marker does not explain his motivation. The most likely reasons are complementary: members of the Perryman family — possibly including Austin Perryman, listed as one of Forestburg’s founding settlers in the early 1850s — were already buried here, giving Levi a personal stake in securing the ground. And Perryman’s standing as a community leader — a former sheriff, a Confederate veteran, a man who had fought alongside his neighbors during the raiding years — gave him the civic authority and likely the financial resources to make the purchase and transfer happen.

Montague County accepted the deed and accepted the perpetual-care obligation. The cemetery’s long-term maintenance became a county responsibility. That arrangement persists today.

Levi Perryman: Sheriff, Soldier, and Cemetery Benefactor

Levi Perryman was born in 1839 and died in 1921, at age 82. His life spanned the full arc of Montague County’s formative period: he was an adult during the Civil War, during the worst years of frontier raiding in the 1860s and 1870s, during the cattle-trail era, and into the early 20th century. The 1983 marker lists four overlapping roles: Confederate soldier, Indian fighter, sheriff, and community leader. Each of those roles shaped who he was and why the cemetery bears his name.

As a Confederate soldier, Perryman served during the Civil War. His unit and rank have not been confirmed in available primary sources. His return to Forestburg after the war placed him in the community at the moment when Comanche raiding was intensifying — the period that produced the burial of Mr. Jones (1863) and the broader pattern of frontier conflict that shaped Montague County’s settlement history.

As an Indian fighter, Perryman participated in the armed defense of Forestburg-area settlements against Comanche and Kiowa raids. This role was not separate from civic life in the 1860s and 1870s — it was civic life. The frontier defense networks of that era were community-organized, informally structured, and entirely local.

As sheriff, Perryman held the county’s highest law-enforcement office. His specific service dates require Montague County Clerk research to confirm; they are not documented in available primary sources. The “sheriffs of Montague County” roster (which covers documented gaps in the county’s sheriff record) does not confirm specific tenure dates for Perryman in the currently available research.

Levi Perryman is buried in the cemetery he deeded. He lies there alongside the neighbors and community members whose ground he secured in 1883 — the Confederate soldiers who came home from Tennessee, the raid victim who did not, and the infant whose 1862 burial set the first marker in a frontier-era burial ground that has been receiving the dead of Forestburg ever since.

The Levi Perryman Collection — a documented archive at an unconfirmed location — is noted in the MoCo research record as a Phase 2 research priority. The collection likely contains correspondence, legal documents, or community records from Perryman’s tenure as sheriff and his civic activities. It may include documentation relevant to the 1883 cemetery transfer.

The Perryman Family in Forestburg

The cemetery’s name and the 1883 deed connect to a multi-generational Perryman family presence in Forestburg. Austin Perryman is listed among the community’s founding settlers in the early 1850s, alongside Wash Williams and Bob Clark. This places the Perryman family in Forestburg before Montague County was formally organized in 1857. Levi Perryman — likely a second-generation family member — represents the continuity of that founding presence across seven decades of county history.

The Perryman family genealogy, including the relationship between Austin and Levi, requires confirmation from family records and Montague County deed books. The available research establishes the family’s prominence and multi-generational roots; the specific genealogical connections between individual family members remain in the Phase 2 research queue.

Indian Raid Documentation: Mr. Jones, 1863

The burial of Mr. Jones — a well-digger killed by Indians in 1863 — is documented in the 1983 THC marker text. That specificity is unusual. Most frontier-era cemetery records do not preserve the cause of death or the circumstances of violence that produced some of the county’s earliest burials. The marker’s preservation of Jones’s occupation and cause of death gives this burial a documentary weight that other undocumented raid casualties lack.

The 1863 date places Jones’s death in the same year as the Ann Keenan raid at Illinois Bend — one of the documented Comanche and Kiowa incursions into Montague County during the Civil War period, when frontier defense forces were depleted and raiding activity increased along the Red River corridor. The Mr. Jones burial at Perryman Cemetery and the Illinois Bend raid of 1863 are separate events but part of the same pattern: a county under sustained frontier pressure during the years when Confederate military service had drawn men away from local defense.

Jones’s full name, family background, and origin are not confirmed in available primary sources. The marker preserves only “Mr. Jones” and “well-digger.” That gap is an honest reflection of the limits of frontier-era documentation.

Civil War Burials: Lookout Mountain

Dory Booher and Ben Steadham are identified in the 1983 marker as Confederate soldiers captured at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. The Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought on November 24, 1863 — part of the Chattanooga Campaign that broke the Confederate hold on the gateway to Georgia and the Deep South. Both men survived capture, were presumably exchanged or released under prisoner-of-war protocols, returned to Forestburg, and were buried at Perryman Cemetery.

The Lookout Mountain connection places these Montague County burials within one of the Civil War’s most dramatic engagements — a battle fought 800 miles from the county where both men had made their homes. Their return and burial here closes the geographic circle. Unit designations, ranks, and exchange dates require Civil War military records research for confirmation.

THC Historical Marker

The Texas Historical Commission erected marker number 3992 at Perryman Cemetery in 1983. The marker is documented in the Historical Marker Database (HMdb.org) under marker record m=290746, with photographs taken and submitted in April 2025. The marker text confirms:

• First marked burial: unnamed infant, 1862
• Notable burials: Mr. Jones (d. 1863, Indian raid victim), Dory Booher and Ben Steadham (Confederate soldiers, Lookout Mountain prisoners)
• 1883 donation: Levi Perryman (1839–1921) purchased and deeded to Montague County
• Current status as of 1983: “still used; serves as a reminder of the area’s pioneers”
• Maintenance: public cemetery, Montague County

The HTC (Historic Texas Cemetery) designation status for Perryman Cemetery has not been confirmed in available primary sources. The cemetery’s historical significance — 1862 establishment, documented Indian-raid casualty, Civil War soldier burials, and the well-documented 1883 Perryman donation — would appear to support HTC eligibility, but no designation record was located in the THC Atlas during 2026 research.

Genealogical Resources

For researchers:

• Find A Grave ID 3647: the cemetery page exists; individual memorial count requires direct access. Burial records beyond those documented in the THC marker require the Find A Grave memorial corpus.
• HMdb m=290746: provides the complete 1983 marker text; primary source for the four named burials documented in this file.
• Montague County Clerk deed records (1883): the land transfer deed from Levi Perryman to Montague County; required for land area, pre-1883 ownership, and transfer terms.
• Civil War military records (NARA): service and prisoner-of-war records for Dory Booher and Ben Steadham; unit and rank confirmation.
• Levi Perryman Collection: location unconfirmed; may contain primary documents relevant to the 1883 transfer and Perryman’s civic roles.
• Genealogy Trails — Montague County Cemeteries: lists Perryman Cemetery in the Forestburg location; cross-reference for inventory research.

Sources

• HMdb — Perryman Cemetery Marker (m=290746) — 1983 THC marker text and photographs
• Find A Grave — Perryman Cemetery (ID 3647)
• Levi Perryman — People Spoke
• Sheriffs of Montague County — People Spoke
• Montague Cemetery — county-seat cemetery; related frontier-era context
• Montague County Cemeteries — County Hub
• Historic Markers of Montague County