VIDOR (Spl) -- A man concerned with the future of the past, 74-year-old Ivan Pattillo of Vidor wants to insure that his ancestors rest in peace, but not in obscurity.

For more than 10 years, Pattillo has been fighting to restore the forgotten Pine Island Cemetery about six miles south of Vidor.

The isolated spot lies between Pecan Acres and Mansfield Ferry Road, about 3/4 of a mile south of FM 105.

The 1.2-acre cemetery parcel, in which 50 to 60 persons were buried between the mid-1800s and 1935, is a tiny piece of a lease tract owned by the Southwest Realty and Development Co., a firm with offices in Houston and New York City.

Pattillo and others, have been attempting to force the firm to give them land for a road to the cemetery and build a fence around it.

Reportedly, the land is leased for cattle grazing, which is an apparent violation of Texas law concerning cemeteries. Therefore, Pattillo intends to continue the battle.

His daughter, an attorney, helped him form a non-profit corporation several years ago to give the group more clout. Members of the group, the Pine Island Cemetery Corp., are also attempting to contact the descendants of those known to be buried in the cemetery to raise funds.

Pattillo is the most persistant [sp] of the group.

The money will go towards legal fees amassed in attempts to get an access road and eventual cleanup of the parcel.

Besides the 10 years spent on the project, Pattillo estimates he has put $700 of his own money in legal and surveying fees.

He and relatives recently placed a military tombstone on the grave of Pattillo's colorful grandfather, Daniel A. Pattillo, a Civil War veteran. Daniel Pattillo was known as "Dr. Dan," because of his knowledge of roots and herbs.

"Dr. Dan," born in 1830, is also believed to be the first white child born in Orange County.

However, Pattillo said that officials of the company that owned the land were reluctant to grant him permission to place the 210-pound stone.

The firm begrudgingly allowed the headstone to be placed and Pattillo's family did some additional patching of the graves.

As a child, Pattillo remembers traveling to the cemetery in a horse-drawn wagon. Earlier this week, Pattillo made another trip to the cemetery, behind the wheel of a pickup truck.

"The wagon was a lot smoother," he observed as the truck hit a rut.

While showing a visitor the forgotten burial ground, he told some of the known history of the cemetery's inhabitants in a tale that meandered like a Louisiana bayou.

Legend identifies the site as an old Alabama Indian burial ground, said Pattillo. Another tale was handed down through a full-blooded Indian girl named Martha Day who married Ezra Stephenson, buried in the cemetery in 1862. It was that six companions of the French explorer Robert La Salle are buried in the plot.

According to that story, six white men were buried in the land when it was an Indian burial ground, said Pattillo.

At one time, it was believed that La Salle himself could have been buried there, but Pattillo said that is unlikely.

The French explorer who searched for the Mississippi River is believed to have been shot by his own men in the late 1600s along the banks of the Neches River, according to one history of Texas.

Actually, six Texas counties, including Orange, claim to be the burial place of La Salle, said Pattillo.

A fairly well preserved stone marks the grave of his great-grandmother Elizabeth Adcock, born in 1800 and buried there in 1862.

Next to Mrs. Adcock lies Mary Myers, born in 1800 and also buried in 1862, according to the tombstones, only a few days after Mrs. Adcock.

Pattillo assumes the two were close friends so were buried next to each other.

In another area of the cemetery lies John and Amanda Turner who both died on the same day in 1883. Pattillo has been trying to trace history of the couple.

"Turner is mysterious. It's hard for me to find out anything about him," he said. Their joint plot was surrounded by a small cast iron fence. One post and several pieces of the fence are scattered in the area, while another post remains erect.

"You can tell it's cast iron because it didn't rust," said Pattillo.

He stopped to brush leaves from a broken tombstone fragment. Pattillo frowned as he looked at the crumbled stones. "They cut some trees in here and tore up everything," he said.

When he is not working on the cemetery project, Pattillo, who is retired from Mobil Oil refinery in Beaumont, is involved in other projects on local history.

He has been the author of as well as the subject of articles in Las Sabinas, a publication of the Orange County Historical Society.

A lifetime resident of the area, he lived in Beaumont until 1968, when he moved to his present home at 570 Concord Road, here. He is a familiar spectator at Vidor City Council meetings.

Pattillo remains optimistic that the realty company will provide land for a road and the cemetery will be restored, despite the fruitless 10-year effort.

"I'm pretty hard to defeat," he said.