Richland Cemetery

A Richland history gives the cemetery's first week. The first burial was Mrs. Willie Patrick Brown in 1895, it says, and W. A. Hardy, a Confederate soldier, was buried the next day. Later burials include W. W. Ward, said to have owned Navarro County's first cotton gin, and J. J. McCallum, Richland's first postmaster. The history counts about 39 veterans: 18 from World War I, 16 from World War II and five from the Civil War, among them Union soldier Jonathan Jones. Memorial services are held the last Sunday in May.

What the plaque says

Richland Cemetery In town founded after the Houston & Texas Central Railroad bypassed older villages. An early store was moved from Pisgah Ridge ( 5 mi. W) by J. T. and Prudence Anderson Patrick, who settled in Richland in 1870. They had three sons, Walter, Jim, and Arthur; and one daughter, Willie. First need for a burial site arose in 1895 with death of Mrs. Willie Patrick Brown, wife of Dr. A. N. Brown. An acre for burials was given by the estate of William Marsh Rice, an investor in the H. & T. C., and owner of much land on the line. A few years later, two adjacent acres were bought from the Rice heirs; Still later, three more acres were bought from Mmes. Eva Swink and Jewel Weaver. Early trustees included Horace Ballew, Dr. A. N. Brown, Shelton Brown, T. B. Skipper, Henry Swink, Fred Tucker, and Clint and Dick Williams. Maintenance for years was done in an annual "All-Day Working". In 1935, Richland Cemetery Association was formed, with Mrs. Dora Anderson as president, and Mrs. Gordon Elkins as secretary-treasurer. Many improvements have since been made by the association. In this cemetery are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and members of many of the founding families of Navarro County. Marker Sponsors: Richland Cemetery Association, Mr. and Mrs. Gussie Weaver and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Patrick, Jr. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 8.9 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 12 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 22 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Old Fort Parker — 26 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.

More markers nearby

• First Methodist Church of Richland — steps away
• Cade Cemetery — 5.6 mi
• Hopewell Cemetery — 5.8 mi
• Angus Schoolhouse — 5.8 mi