Abbott Springs Meadows Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Abbott Springs Meadows Cemetery, out in Polk County. Now, before there was a Polk County, there was a Trinity County, and before Trinity County had much of anything in it, a man named Samuel Crissman received a headright of land on Peses Creek, what folks would later call Paces Creek, back in 1835. That was the seed.

By the 1850s, a community had taken root right there, and somebody, somewhere, decided to call it Asia. The families came in like you'd expect, one at a time, putting down roots in that piney country. W.

Elias and Susan Meadows, she was born a Towns, were there by 1853. Then came Amos and Cynthia Snell, Cynthia having been a Johnson. And the James and Milley Ann Standley family, Milley Ann born a Silcox.

These were the people who turned raw land into something resembling a community. James Standley, now there was a practical man. He set up a cabinet shop and a blacksmith shop, and those two operations became the very nucleus of Asia.

You want to know where a town's heart is, find the blacksmith. The Abbott Springs Meadows Cemetery, the marker tells us, was likely located on either the Standley or the Meadows property. Right there, close to the people who built the place.

The oldest dated burial in that cemetery belongs to Roxie J. Standley, January of 1868. The earliest stones before hers are no longer legible, just fieldstones marking ground where somebody's people lie, names worn clean off by time.

All the graves face east, toward Paces Creek. Native hardwoods and plants grew up around them, the land doing what it does. Then the mid-1880s brought a different kind of energy.

The Trinity and Sabine Railway built through the area, and the Sam Allen Lumber Company of Houston constructed a sawmill right there at Asia. New residents poured in, loggers and millworkers and their families, and a school went up to serve the children. Asia was humming.

But here is where the story turns, and it always turns. The timber got overharvested. Before 1910, the lumber industry had taken more than the land could give back, and the decline of the industry led to the demise of the community itself.

People drifted away. Asia went quiet. The cemetery, that ground where the Standleys and the Meadows and all the rest had been laid to rest, got abandoned.

Got overgrown. The forest, as forests will, moved back in. Those tombstones, the ones still readable, tell you something about the people who used the place.

Masons. Woodmen of the World. Members of the KJZT, that is the Katolika Jednota Zen Texaska, a Czech Catholic fraternal organization.

Military veterans, too. James B. Standley who served in the U.S.-Mexico War, and W.

Elias Meadows who served in the Civil War. The cemetery sat overgrown and forgotten for years, until the 1990s, when descendants of those buried there came back. They restored the community burial ground.

Brought it back from the brush. Some places earn their rest and some places earn their resurrection. Abbott Springs Meadows Cemetery, it seems, earned both.

What the marker says

This pioneer graveyard served the early settlement of Asia in what was previously Trinity county. In 1835, Samuel Crissman received a headright of land on Peses (Paces) Creek, and by the 1850s the community of Asia developed. W. Elias and Susan (Towns) meadows were here by 1853, joined later by the Amos and Cynthia (Johnson) Snell and James and Milley Ann (Silcox) Standley families. James Standley's cabinet and blacksmith shops became the nucleus of the Asia community. The Abbott Springs Meadows Cemetery was likely located on either the Standley or Meadows property. In the mid-1880s, the Trinity and Sabine Railway built through the area and the Sam Allen Lumber Company of Houston constructed a sawmill at Asia. Many new residents arrived, and a school was built to serve the children of the loggers and millworkers. The decline of the lumber industry, due to overharvesting of the timber before 1910, led to the demise of the community. The earliest gravestones here are no longer legible, with several burials marked by fieldstones. The oldest dated burial, of RoxieJ. Standley, dates from January 1868. All graves face east toward Paces Creek, and native hardwoods and plants form the cemetery's natural landscape. Tombstones reflect organizations such as masons, woodmen of the world, and KJZT (katolika jednota zen texaska, a Czech Catholic fraternal organization). Military veterans includeJames B. Standley (U.S.-Mexico war) and W. Elias Meadows (Civil War). With the decline of the Asia community the site was abandoned and became overgrown. In the 1990s, descendants of those buried here restored the community burial ground.