Champion Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Champion Cemetery, out in Williamson County. Now settle in, because this one reaches back a good long ways. John Champion, went by Jack, was born in York County, South Carolina, in 1817.

Somewhere along the way he pointed himself toward Texas, and by 1850 he had arrived, because that is the year he and Naomi Jane Standefer were issued a marriage license right there in Williamson County. He was planting roots. In 1854, Jack Champion bought more than two hundred acres at the headwaters of Brushy Creek.

Two hundred acres. That is not a man who came to dabble. He came to stay.

And stay he did. He served in the Civil War. He served, briefly, as County Sheriff.

The man kept himself busy. Naomi Jane Standefer Champion was born in 1834, and she became the mother of seven of Champion's nineteen children. Nineteen children.

You heard that right. And Naomi passed in 1862. Her grave is the oldest of the four marked graves in what became the Champion family's pioneer cemetery.

But here is the thing about that cemetery, the thing that makes you go quiet when you stand near it. Surveys indicate the presence of at least five unmarked graves. Five more souls, at minimum, resting there without a name cut in stone to hold their place.

Jack Champion himself lived until 1908. He outlasted the century he was born into, and he left behind a family and a piece of ground along Brushy Creek that the earth itself has been quietly keeping count of ever since.

What the marker says

John (Jack) Champion (1817-1908) was a native of York County, South Carolina. He moved to Texas by 1850, the year he and Naomi Jane Standefer (1834-1862) were issued a marriage license in Williamson County. In 1854, Champion bought more than 200 acres at the headwaters of Brushy Creek. He later served in the Civil War and, briefly, as County Sheriff. The grave of Naomi, the mother of seven of Champion's nineteen children, is the oldest of the four marked graves in the pioneer family's cemetery. Surveys indicate the presence of at least five unmarked graves. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002