Jonah Cemetery

Jonah began as a mill. In 1857 James P. Warnock and Joseph T. Mileham built one on the San Gabriel, and the settlement was called Water Valley and Eureka Mills before it had a post office. When residents applied in the early 1880s, postal officials rejected the names offered, until someone remarked that the town was a Jonah as far as picking a name went. That name was accepted in 1884. A flood in 1921 destroyed a church and a bridge, and a fire in 1927 took much of the town.

What the plaque says

Jonah Cemetery Jonah Cemetery was established in 1902 when community leaders J. M. Barrington, W. S. McMakins, C. Brady, A. J. McDonald, and R. H. Northcutt purchased two acres near the San Gabriel River to be used as a cemetery. Burials were free to area residents. The earliest marked grave is that of George N. Northcutt. Other graves of interest are those of Confederate veterans Isiah S. Hicks and M. G. Walton. Twin sisters Sarah E. (Yoes) Robbins and Margaret (Yoes) Barrington are interred here near many of their 22 children. One of the last physical remnants of a once-thriving rural community, the Jonah Cemetery continues to serve the area. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 9.5 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 10 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 13 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 27 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• Community of Jonah — 1.5 mi
• Monodale Community — 3.5 mi
• Site of Neusser (Naizerville) — 3.6 mi
• Mankins Crossing — 3.9 mi