John Forbes (1797-1880)

    John Forbes, lawyer, judge, and military man of the Texan army during the Texas Revolution, was born to Scottish parents on February 26, 1797, in Cork, Ireland. His family moved when he was two to England, where he remained until 1817. That year Forbes immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in business. While in Ohio he married Emily Sophia Sisson. They moved to Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1835. There, Forbes was appointed chairman of the Committee of Vigilance and Public Safety, and according to one account he wrote to President Andrew Jackson, protesting that various Indian chiefs of the Creek Nation were contracting with Archibald Hotchkiss and Benjamin Hawkins to enter and settle a vast tract of land in East Texas, to which 5,000 Creeks would migrate. When the General Council of the provisional government passed an act providing the council authority to elect two judges, Forbes was elected first judge of Nacogdoches Municipality on November 26, 1835. In December Gen. Sam Houston, John Cameron, and Forbes were appointed commissioners by provisional governor Henry Smith and the Consultation to secure a treaty with the Cherokees who were living near Nacogdoches. This treaty was signed by Chief Bowl, Sam Houston, and Forbes after a three-day conference with the Indians; the treaty bound the Cherokees to strict neutrality. Forbes also administered the oath of allegiance to army recruits, including David Crockett, as they passed through Nacogdoches. Forbes was then given the rank of major and appointed aide-de-camp to Sam Houston. He also served as commissary general under Houston during the campaigns at Anahuac and San Jacinto.

    According to the accounts of Nicholas D. Labadie, Forbes murdered one or two Mexican women, took prisoners without justification, and reportedly took a gold snuff box from the dead body of a Mexican colonel. After the defeat of the Mexican forces under Antonio López de Santa Anna, Forbes was placed in charge of the spoils of war and acquired Santa Anna's sword. Eventually his reputation was restored, after he filed a libel suit in a Nacogdoches court against Labadie, a suit that was on the civil agenda from 1859 to 1867. Forbes was cleared of all charges. He was discharged on November 17, 1836, from military duty. On his return to Nacogdoches, he served as principal judge of the Municipality of Nacogdoches, in which office he administered the oath of allegiance to many of the new Texans who arrived after the revolution. In 1856 he ran for mayor of Nacogdoches and won. He served in that capacity for several years. In 1876 he was appointed lieutenant colonel on the staff of Richard Coke. Forbes died on February 10, 1880, in Nacogdoches, and was survived by two daughters, who buried him beside his wife in the Oak Grove Cemetery. Source


Oak Grove Cemetery
Nacogdoches

COORDINATES

31° 36.160, -094° 38.946

Vincent Paul "Vinnie Paul" Abbott (1964-2018)

    Vincent Paul Abbott was born in Abilene, Texas, on March 11, 1964. His father Jerry, a country music songwriter and producer, directed his interest in music towards the drums and bought him his first kit. In 1981, Abbott formed the heavy metal band Pantera with his brother Darrell, and, after a few member changes, recruited vocalist Phil Anselmo in 1987. By 1990, the band had been signed to Atco Records and released Cowboys from Hell, which proved to be the band's turning point. Over the course of four more studio records, a live album and a greatest hits compilation, Pantera was nominated for four best metal performance Grammys for the songs I'm Broken, Suicide Note Pt. I, Cemetery Gates, and Revolution Is My Name. Because of an ongoing dispute between Anselmo and the brothers, Pantera disbanded in 2003. After the breakup, the Abbotts formed the heavy metal band Damageplan with Bob Zilla on bass and Pat Lachman on lead vocals. Damageplan released only one album, New Found Power, in 2004. On December 8th of that year, while on tour to support the new album, Darrell Abbott was shot dead onstage by Nathan Gale at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. Damageplan disbanded shortly thereafter. After burying his brother, Vincent formed Big Vin Records in February 2006 and released Rebel Meets Rebel and a DVD, Dimevision, Volume 1. Along with Cristina Scabbia, (co-lead vocalist of Lacuna Coil) he wrote a monthly question-and-answer column in Revolver. In June 2006, after an 18-month performing hiatus, Abbott joined the heavy metal supergroup Hellyeah, which also featured Chad Gray and Greg Tribbett from Mudvayne, Tom Maxwell from Nothingface, and Bob Zilla from Damageplan. In 2016, the group released 5 studio albums, with the latest being Unden!able, released in June 2016. Unden!able would turn out to be Vincent's last album. His final performance took place at The Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel and Resort at Las Vegas on June 17, 2018. Five days later, Vincent unexpectedly died at the age of 54 in his hotel room from coronary artery disease. He was buried beside his mother, Carolyn, and brother, Darrell. Source

Lakeside Estates

Moore Memorial Gardens

Arlington

COORDINATES

32° 45.239, -097° 07.192

Michael Francis "Mike" Dukes (1936-2008)

    Mike Dukes was an American collegiate and professional football player who was best known as a linebacker for the original Houston Oilers. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Dukes attended Southwest DeKalb High School in Decatur, Georgia and then played in college for Clemson University. He then played the 1959 season for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Dukes left the NFL for the upstart American Football League where he played eleven seasons for the Oilers, Boston Patriots and New York Jets. He played for the first two championship teams of the American Football League, the 1960 and 1961 Oilers, and was selected to the UPI All-AFL Team in 1961. Dukes died in an automobile accident on Interstate 10 in Beaumont, Texas on June 16, 2008 at age 72 and was interred in Port Neches.

Section 10
Oak Bluff Memorial Park
Port Neches

COORDINATES

30° 00.054, -093° 57.731

Thomas Henry Borden (1804-1877)

    Thomas Henry Borden, early settler, soldier, and inventor, son of Gail and Philadelphia (Wheeler) Borden, Sr., was born in Norwich, New York, on January 28, 1804. After a boyhood in New York, Kentucky, and Indiana, he joined Stephen F. Austin's colony in Texas in 1824 as one of the Old Three Hundred. In 1830 he was Austin's official surveyor, a post he later resigned in favor of his brother, Gail Borden, Jr. In 1833 T. H. Borden was farming near Tenoxtitlán, but by 1835 he had moved to Fort Bend. During November and December 1835 he participated with the Texas army in the Grass Fight and the siege of Bexar under Benjamin R. Milam. In October 1835 he helped Gail Borden and Joseph Baker found the Telegraph and Texas Register. He remained with that paper until March 14, 1837, when he sold his interest to Dr. Francis Moore, Jr. In October 1836 Borden helped lay out the city of Houston, and the following year he entered the real estate business in Columbia, sometimes in partnership with Erastus (Deaf) Smith and sometimes with Robert D. Johnson. 

    He was active in founding the town of Richmond, and as late as 1873 still owned much land in Fort Bend and Brazoria counties. In 1840 Borden was living in Galveston, engaged principally in surveying and butchering. He constructed the first windmill on Galveston Island and ran it in combination with the first local gristmill. At his home the first Baptist church in Galveston was organized, on January 30, 1840. Like his brother Gail he had a gift for invention; he is sometimes credited with inventing the terraqueous machine often attributed to his brother. In Galveston he invented a steam gauge, or manometer, for use on river steamboats. In 1849 he moved to New Orleans, where he had an excellent business. According to tradition, he did not believe in the principle of patents; so other gauge manufacturers patented his product and eliminated him from competition. On June 4, 1829, Borden married Demis Woodword, who bore him two sons before her death in Houston on September 16, 1836. He married Louisa R. Graves of New York in 1838. Loss of his steam-gauge business, Civil War losses, and the protracted illness of his wife reduced Borden to comparative poverty in the late 1860s and necessitated his moving back to Galveston, where he died on March 16, 1877. Source


Evergreen Cemetery
Galveston

COORDINATES

29° 17.640, -094° 48.835