John Robin Heard

The Handbook of Texas says the town of Cusseta was named for Cusseta, Alabama, which it calls Heard's hometown, and describes him as an early settler of the area rather than its founder. A post office opened in 1856, and the entry suggests the town was a supply point for nearby plantation owners. In 1884 it had two gins, a gristmill, a school and about 100 residents. The count fell to 50 in 1896, stood at 100 in 1914, and was 30 in 1990 and 2000. The town is unincorporated and has no post office.

What the plaque says

John Robin Heard (1794-1866) A descendant of settlers who came to America in 1720 from County Tyrone, Ireland, John Robin Heard was born in Georgia and moved to Texas in 1853. He founded the nearby town of Cussetta and acquired large landholdings in this area. In 1861 he donated property for this cemetery. His home stood near this site until the 1940s. Heard's first wife was Martha Hopkins. After her death, he married her sister, Mary Hopkins. From the two marriages, he had 12 children. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Atlanta State Park — 13 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.
• Daingerfield State Park — 18 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• Museum of Regional History — 30 mi
  Texarkana's oldest museum, in an 1879 brick building on State Line Avenue, with Caddo pottery, one of Scott Joplin's pianos and a research library of city directories and photographs.

More markers nearby

• John Robin Heard Cemetery — 3.2 mi
• Floyds' Hill Church - Cemetery — 4.1 mi
• Methodist Episcopal Church of Douglassville — 7.1 mi
• Douglassville Cemetery — 7.2 mi