Blewett Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll tell it the way it deserves to be told. Now, most cemeteries have a name, but not every cemetery has a story that starts before the first shovel ever broke ground. This one does.

The Reverend George L. Blewett came to Texas in 1853, him, his family, and a company of other pioneers, all of them making their way down from Kentucky. He was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, a man who traveled with faith in one hand and the future in the other.

He established this ground for family and community burials, set it aside as a place where those who'd come so far could one day rest. And then 1855 arrived, and the ground was needed sooner than any father would have wished. His daughter Ann died, and she was the first to be laid here.

That's the kind of detail that makes a place real. Not a date on a deed, not a name carved into a cornerstone; but a father's grief, pressed into Texas soil. Over the years, the Blewett family kept coming back to this land, though not by choice.

Nine of the Blewett children are buried here. Nine. George himself was laid to rest in 1884, and his wife Nancy followed in 1903.

A family that came to Texas together, and stayed together in the end. For many years the cemetery was bound up with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and until the mid-1920s it served as one of the primary burial grounds for the Richardson community; generations of neighbors, all of them finding their way to this place that a Kentucky minister set aside on faith. The Reverend Blewett came to Texas with other pioneers and a calling.

He left behind a piece of ground that held his children, held his name, held a whole community's memory. Some legacies are built. Some are planted.

This one grew quiet, right here in Dallas County.

What the marker says

Established for family and community burials by the Rev. George L. Blewett, this cemetery was first used in 1855 after the death of his daughter Ann. A Cumberland Presbyterian minister, Blewett had come to Texas in 1853 with his family and other pioneers from Kentucky. Nine of the Blewett children are buried here, as are George (d. 1884) and his wife, Nancy (d. 1903). The Blewett Cemetery was for many years associated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and until the mid-1920s was one of the primary burial grounds for the Richardson community. 1985