Franklin Cemetery

The plaque names two legislators among Franklin's dead, and the Legislative Reference Library fills in their careers. Jacob Leonard Goodman, a Georgia-born lawyer, first went to the Texas House for Robertson County in 1891, returned in 1907, and came back again in 1931, four decades after his first term. Edmund Anderson Decherd Jr., born in Franklin in 1875 and a schoolteacher in 1900, served one House term from 1915 and then entered the Senate, which elected him president pro tempore in February 1918. He resigned that April and later dealt in Dallas real estate and oil leases.

What the plaque says

Franklin Cemetery The community of Franklin was originally established in 1872, and named Morgan for an official of the International Railway Company. By 1879 the town had 200 residents. When the community applied for its post office, another Texas post office was named Morgan, so residents changed the name to Franklin after the name of the original county seat. A five-acre plot of land for a graveyard was deeded to Robertson County in 1880 as part of an incentive to persuade officials to locate the county courthouse in Franklin. However, six tombstones on this site predate its official designation as a graveyard. The first recorded burial is that of Elizabeth Calvert in 1869. Among the more than 1,300 graves are members of fraternal organizations, and veterans of the Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. C. N. Brignance, veteran of the War of 1812, also is buried here. Interments also include those of former city and county officials, state legislators, E. A. Decherd and J. L. Goodman, and four local musicians who achieved national fame. The Franklin Cemetery continues to serve the citizens of Franklin and Robertson counties as it has for more than 100 years. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 12 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.

More markers nearby

• Franklin — 0.7 mi
• General Walter Washington Williams — 3.5 mi
• New Baden — 3.9 mi
• Site of Owensville — 4.5 mi