Driver Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm going by what the official marker says, so let's give the record its due. Now settle in, because this one's about a man who came to Texas and left his mark on the land long after he was gone. Julius Driver was born in 1795, came out of Georgia, and in 1852 he migrated to Freestone County, buying up some Faulkenberry headright land.

That's how you plant roots. You find good ground and you claim it. But what Julius Driver did with that ground is what makes this story worth telling around any campfire.

He didn't just hold onto what he had. He gave. He set aside four and a half acres for a cemetery, a place for his community to lay its people to rest.

The first person buried there was a daughter-in-law, Mary Groover Driver, Mrs. William G. Driver, and that was in 1869.

Think on that. The very first soul committed to that ground was family. Then in 1878, Driver gave another site nearby for the Hicks Spring Church and school.

A cemetery, a church, a school. The man was building something that would outlast him, and he knew it. Julius Driver lived until 1883, and by then the foundations he'd laid were real and solid.

Those grounds around Hicks Spring became a gathering place, and in 1890, the Confederate veterans of Freestone County held their very first reunion there. When it came time to make the cemetery's deed official and recorded to the public, that work fell to a subsequent landowner, John Hays, who got it done in 1901. And the community kept right on caring for that ground.

The Driver Cemetery Association has governed the property since 1915. By 1975, when the marker was written up, six hundred and seventy-three graves rested in those four and a half acres. One man gave the land.

The community filled it with memory, and they're tending it still.

What the marker says

Julius Driver (1795-1883) migrated from Georgia in 1852, buying some Faulkenberry headright land, and later giving 4.5 acres for this cemetery. A daughter-in-law, Mary Groover (Mrs. William G.) Driver, was first person buried here, in 1869. Driver also gave site in 1878 for nearby Hicks Spring Church and school. There the Confederate veterans of Freestone County had their first reunion in 1890. The recorded deed of cemetery to the public was made by a subsequent landowner, John Hays, in 1901. The Driver Cemetery Association has governed the property since 1915. There are now (1975) 673 graves.