Drummond Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the words on the official marker, so here's the story as the record gives it to me. Helen Fanny Harris Drummond had already weathered more than most. Her husband died in Jamaica, and after that she gathered her children and returned to England.

Then, in 1885, she made the crossing again, this time to the United States, settling in Brazos County, Texas. But she wasn't done moving. By October of 1891, she had purchased one hundred acres out in Taylor County, including the very ground we're talking about today, and she bought it from the Hammond family.

Now, that detail matters, because the Hammonds weren't just sellers. They were neighbors. They were connected to this land in ways that were about to become permanent.

Within a few years, by 1895, Helen Drummond had donated two acres of that property for a cemetery. The deed was officially recorded in 1901, but the ground had already been receiving the dead for years by then. The earliest grave is believed to be that of an infant, buried in 1892.

No marked stone, just the earth holding a memory. Later that same year, the infant son of Joseph C. and Nannie Stewart Hammond died and was interred here. His is the earliest marked grave.

Think about that. The Hammond family sold Helen Drummond this land, and then this land became the place where they buried their child. Helen Drummond herself was laid to rest here in 1896, joining the small community of the departed she had helped to provide for.

And the cemetery kept growing. Her descendants are there. Hammond descendants are there.

And there is the gravesite of Martha Jones Hardin Heffernan, a pioneer settler noted to have been living in the area by 1880, who died in 1918. The burial ground was enlarged in 1996, and today it is maintained by a cemetery association made up of community residents and family members. It remains, as the marker puts it, an important link between early area settlers and the generations that have followed.

Some links are made of iron. Some are made of stone. And some, it turns out, are made of two donated acres and the decision of one woman to put down roots deep enough to last.

What the marker says

In 1879, after her husband's death in Jamaica, Helen Fanny Harris Drummond returned with her children to England. She immigrated with them to the United States in 1885, settling in Brazos County, Texas. In October 1891, she purchased 100 acres in Taylor County, including this site, from the Hammond family. By 1895, she had donated two acres for the Drummond Cemetery; the deed for the property was officially recorded in 1901. The earliest grave is believed to be that of an infant buried in 1892. Later that year, the infant son of Joseph C. and Nannie Stewart Hammond died and was interred here. His is the earliest marked grave. Helen Drummond's grave dates to 1896. Several of her descendants, as well as those of the Hammonds, are also interred at the cemetery. Of note is the gravesite of pioneer settler Martha Jones Hardin Heffernan (d. 1918), who was living in the area by 1880. Today, the burial ground, enlarged in 1996, is maintained by a cemetery association of community residents and family members. It remains an important link between early area settlers and the generations that have followed. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004