Allphin Cemetery

Duane's take

The marker tells it this way, and I'm just passin' it along. Sometime in 1829, a family packed up everything they had in Illinois and pointed themselves toward Texas. Among them was young Ransom Allphin, born in 1812, making that long journey with his parents down into what was then Montgomery County — land that would later be called Madison County.

They were putting roots in new soil, and Ransom Allphin, for one, intended to make something of it. By 1835 he had secured this very property through a Mexican land grant. He farmed the land, ran a grist mill, married a woman named Elizabeth Johnston, and together they raised seven children.

By any measure, a man building a life. Now here's where the story takes a turn. In 1854, Allphin was digging a well right here on this ground — practical work, necessary work — when he hit something unexpected in the soil.

Clay. Soapstone. The land wasn't going to give him the water he came for.

So he abandoned the well. But rather than write the whole thing off, Ransom Allphin did something that says everything about the man. He donated the five acres for a community burial ground.

And then — same year, 1854 — Ransom Allphin died. Born in 1812, gone by 1854. The man who gave this ground away became the first one laid in it.

The cemetery carried on, holding the community's losses across the decades. Then came 1918, and the influenza epidemic arrived with a cruelty all its own, filling a great many of these graves in that single terrible year. Ransom Allphin dug for water and found something else entirely.

What he left behind turned out to matter a whole lot more than any well.

What the marker says

In 1829 Ransom Allphin (1812-1854) and his parents migrated from Illinois to Montgomery (present Madison) County. Allphin acquired this property in an 1835 Mexican land grant. He and his wife Elizabeth (Johnston) had seven children. Allphin farmed and operated a grist mill. In 1854, while digging a well here, Allphin discovered clay and soapstone in the soil. He abandoned the well and donated this 5-acre plot for a community burial ground. Allphin died the same year and his was the first grave. The 1918 influenza epidemic accounted for many of the burials.