The Pate Cemetery (Pate-Sanders Cemetery)

My curiosity about the Shook family began with a visit to the Pate Cemetery in Tomball, Texas as a teenager (ca. 1976). My great-grandmother, Tassie (Pate) Shook, is buried in this cemetery, and while she is the only Shook buried in this cemetery, it was Tassie that started my genealogical journey. When Tassie died in 1910, my grandfather Jessie Earl Shook inherited about 20 acres of land from Tassie as a small child. Later in life, Earl donated about an acre of that land to formalize the private family cemetery. More than 100 years later, the remaining 19 acres of land surrounding the Pate Cemetery is still owned by the Shook family, and, consequently, continues to be a focal point of interest.

The oldest section of the cemetery is the back, right corner. I remember a couple of headstones in the 1700s in that section as a teenager (ca. 1976). My uncle, Dean Anthony Shook, was born in 1946. So he was probably about 30 when I first visted the cemetery with him. I remember discussing the graves with Dean, and his recollection was that those two graves were Mexicans. The headstones are no longer there. So this recollection is from memory. Less tangible is the oral history (from Dean) that several African-Americans are buried in the left, front section of the cemetery (either just inside or outside the fence near the corner).

Earl and Joe Shook placed Tassie's headstone in a "best guess" location around the mid-1950s. Dean was probably about 10 years old at the time and remembers tagging along with his dad and grandfather, drinking "hot" Coca Cola and causing his dad some anxiety when he discovered a Copperhead. Dean was the family historian until I picked up the torch about 10 years ago. He has pictures of the cemetery fence being built (which I'm working on getting on this website), the original "Family Cemetery" sign, and participating family members. (Although Earl funded formalization of the cemetery, he lived in Port Arthur. Aunt Emma Larkin supervised construction.)

Allen

Ashley

Beville

Blanchard

Bolt

Canon

Carroll

Colston

Courim

Cross

Cupples

Davis

DuBose

Duclos

Ferguson

Fowler

Glass

Goodson

Hunnicutt

Johnson

Jones

Knight

Laird

  • Laird, Georgia M. (1898 - 1974)
  • Laird, Ruben (1884 - 1962)

Larkin

Moyer

Mullican

Neidigk

Oliver

Parker

Pate

Randall

Rhodes

Rickett

Robbins

Rudel

Sanders

Sansom

Scott

Shook

Smith

Vaughn

Vessels

Weihrich