Adina Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Adina Cemetery, out in Lee County. Now settle in, because this one's got layers. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with a man coming from somewhere else, carrying whatever he had left after the war.

R.L. Cain was an Alabama native. He'd served in the Civil War, and when that was done, he came to Texas and settled in this area.

And in 1867, he did something that outlasted him by a good long while. He deeded five acres to Lee County, set aside as a cemetery for the community around him. That community was known then as the Cain School Community.

The name would change later, when a post office came along and the settlement became Adina. And the cemetery followed suit, taking the name Adina Community Cemetery. But here's the thing about ground that's set aside for the dead.

It doesn't wait for the paperwork. The earliest known burials here actually predate Cain's deed. The first is the unmarked grave of an infant, the child of a family who was only camping in the area.

Passing through, maybe, and then stopped by grief. The other is Martha Cane Slaughter, who died in 1871. Their names, or the absence of one, are among the oldest stories this ground holds.

Now, the cemetery grew across the decades, and in 2001, it received six more. Six burials from the Mcdavid and Craddock families, originally located over in Craddock Cemetery in Bastrop County, were reinterred here, placed next to members of their extended families. Among them was William B.

Craddock, listed on the marker as one of many victims of the violence that plagued this area in the 1870s and 1880s. The marker doesn't linger on that violence, but it doesn't have to. The word victim does the work.

Today the Adina Cemetery Association maintains and operates this ground. The burial markers here represent veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. And the whole place, well-shaded as the marker notes, is full of headstones telling the stories of early residents of Adina and the communities around it.

A man deeded five acres, and what grew on that ground was the memory of a whole corner of Texas.

What the marker says

Following his service in the Civil War, Alabama native R.L. Cain came to Texas and settled in this area. In 1867, he deeded five acres to Lee County for a cemetery for this area, known then as Cain School Community. The settlement's name changed to Adina when its post office was established, and the cemetery became known as the Adina Community Cemetery. Predating Cain's deed for the cemetery, the earliest known burials here are the unmarked grave of an infant, the child of a family camping in the area, and that of Martha Cane Slaughter, who died in 1871. In 2001, six burials from the Mcdavid and Craddock families, originally located in nearby Craddock Cemetery, in Bastrop County, were reinterred here next to members of their extended families. The graves include that of William B. Craddock, one of many victims of the violence that plagued the area in the 1870s and 1880s. Maintained and operated by the Adina Cemetery Association, the graveyard includes burials of veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The headstones in the well-shaded burial ground tell the stories of the early residents of Adina and surrounding communities. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002