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Writer's pictureDonna Hechler Porter

Cruse Cemetery, Tyler County, Texas Part 3

Usually family cemeteries are not confined to just family members. The Cruse Cemetery is no exception.


Buried alongside the John and Elizabeth (Barclay) Cruse family are her parents, Robert Barclay and Sarah McKinsey.


Robert Barclay was the oldest son of Walter Barclay and Elizabeth McQueen. Robert was born on 12 November 1804 in Madison County, Kentucky. His paternal grandparents were Robert and Leah Barkley of Rowan County, North Carolina. His maternal grandparents were John and Nancy (Crews) McQueen. When he was about two years old, his parents left Kentucky for Tennessee, following the McQueens.


Sarah McKinsey was the daughter of Lacy McKinsey. She was born in 23 December 1808 in Kentucky. Her parents moved to Union County, Arkansas at an early date. Robert left Kentucky as a young man, met Sarah there, and married her.


About 1840 Robert and Sarah moved to Texas where he died in 1845. Sarah remained a widow, running their farm on her own with her slaves and her sons, until 1854 when she married widower Milton McQueen. Sarah is a controversial figure in McQueen-Barclay history. Beloved by some, she was hated by others. She was sued for slander by Narcissa Jane Fulghum (later wife of John Thomas "Jack" Bean) before the Civil War, accused of poisoning Milton McQueen, and was estranged from several of her sons in her later years.


Milton died in December of 1864 at the end of the Civil War. Sarah died on 11 October 1892 and was buried by her first husband in the Cruse Cemetery.



Robert Barclay's headstone




This picture and the one below both are the tombstone of Sarah McKenzie Barclay McQueen.



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