Avinger Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Around 1876, a man named Dr. Hamilton J.

Avinger had a decision to make. The East Line and Red River Railroad was coming through, and it was going to cross his property. Now, Dr.

Avinger could have dug in his heels. Instead, he made a move that would put his name on the map, literally. He donated land.

Land for a railroad depot, land for a Methodist church, and land for a cemetery. That last gift is the one we're standing at the edge of right now. And the town that grew up around all of it?

They called it Avinger. Dr. Avinger hadn't always been a Texas man.

He came from South Carolina, immigrating to Texas in 1855, and when he first arrived he settled three miles north of where this cemetery stands, in a community called Youngs Chapel. He wasn't alone for long. Other family members followed, and they got to work, establishing lumber mills and other commercial properties.

Before Dr. Avinger made his move, there were already two earlier settlements in the area, roughly four miles apart from each other. Youngs Chapel to the north, and Hickory Hill, about a mile to the south.

But once that East Line and Red River Railroad Station was established here, something shifted. People from Youngs Chapel and Hickory Hill started moving toward the new settlement. You can hardly blame them.

Avinger became a shipping point for produce and lumber, and it grew steadily on through the late nineteenth and into the early twentieth century. Now, the cemetery Dr. Avinger set aside was never tied to any one church.

It was a community burial ground from the start, and the community took that seriously. The earliest known burial here is of Alice Rhyne, who died in 1877, a victim of a typhoid fever epidemic. The ground has received veterans of conflicts going back to the Civil War, alongside residents who made vital contributions to the town itself.

For generations, people who called Avinger home saw to the care of this place. The 1936 Study Club of Avinger maintained the burial ground from 1959 until 1963, when the Avinger Cemetery Association organized and took up that responsibility. The Cemetery Association carries on that work today.

This cemetery has outlasted the urgency that created it, the railroad deal, the competing settlements, the epidemic of 1877. What remains is a record, quiet and steady, of the early pioneers and leaders of Avinger. Dr.

Avinger gave this ground away to get a railroad. What the ground became was something else entirely.

What the marker says

Ca. 1876, to ensure construction of the East Line & Red River Railroad across his property, Dr. Hamilton J. Avinger donated land for a railroad depot, a Methodist church and this cemetery, establishing a new community bearing his name. Avinger immigrated to Texas from South Carolina in 1855 and first settled in the community of Youngs Vhapel (3 mi. N). Other family members soon joined him, establishing lumber mills and other commercial properties. Two earlier area settlements, approximately four miles apart, existed prior to the founding of Avinger. After the East Line & Red River Railroad Station was established here, many residents of the Youngs Chapel and Hickory Hill (1 mi. S) communities moved to Avinger. The new settlement soon became a shipping point for produce and lumber and grew steadily throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The earliest known burial in the cemetery is of Alice Rhyne (d. 1877), a victim of a typhoid fever epidemic. Others interred here include veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War as well as those who made vital contributions to the town of Avinger. As the population of Avinger increased, residents used the burial ground as a community cemetery; it has never been affiliated with a particular church. Community residents have long cared for the graveyard, a treasured institution. The 1936 Study Club of Avinger maintained the burial ground from 1959 until 1963, when the Avinger Cemetery Association organized. Today, the Cemetery Association continues to care for this burial ground, which remains as a record of the early pioneers and leaders of Avinger. Historic texas cemetery - 2002