Denson Springs Cemetery

Before 1878 this settlement was called Ioni. Texas Escapes says the creek and village were named for the Ioni people who camped there, and that the village peaked in 1884 with a school, three churches, a store, a gristmill and a gin. Wikipedia's article on Denson Springs says the 1878 renaming honored Nancy Anne Denson, and that a post office ran from 1893 to 1918. Before the Civil War the Grayson place held one of Anderson County's largest schools, and its schoolhouse also served as a Baptist church. In 1955 the school merged into the Slocum district.

What the plaque says

Denson Springs Cemetery Early settlers of this area, known as Ioni after a nearby Indian village, began arriving in the early 1830s. The land on which this cemetery is located was granted to James Bradshaw in 1835. When he died in 1844, the property was inherited by his brother, William, who moved here with his family from Nacogdoches in 1849. One of William Bradshaw's daughters, Diana, married Kindred Watkins in 1850. When their first child, a son, was born and died on August 15, 1851, he was buried near their home. The child's burial was the first in what would become Denson Springs Cemetery. Over the years, this one-acre plot became a family burial ground. Later, other settlers of the area were also buried here, and when the name of the community was changed in 1878 to Denson Springs, this site became known as the Denson Springs Cemetery. Besides the marked graves, it is believed there are a number of unmarked burials. Veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II are interred here. The graveyard was deeded to the Denson Springs Cemetery Association in 1980. Set in a grove of trees, it is a quiet reminder of the area's early pioneers and settlers. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 13 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 14 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• Muse Cemetery — 2.4 mi
• "Slocum Massacre" — 5.1 mi
• Waneta Community and School — 5.1 mi
• Site of Fastrill — 5.7 mi