The Arters were a black family listed on the 1880 Anderson County, Texas census. Hariet (spelling on gravestone) Ann was born in Tennessee. Her husband Alex was a farmer born in Georgia. Their children, all born in Texas, were Mary Ann, age 14; Sam. E., age 11; Thos. H., age 7; and Ellan T., age 2.

In 2008, my husband and I visited with Mr. Louie Melton who lives in the Sand Springs area where the Arter family lived. He told us that still today, an uphill section of County Road 1225 near where they lived is known as Alex Arter Hill.

Mr. Melton said that in years past there were three headstones. When Kay Watkins took the picture of the headstones in 1965, there were only two. Kay provided the inscriptions from the two now missing headstones.

In 2006, Relf Huddleston searched for the headstones but found only the two bases.