Herrington Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. John Granberry Herrington and his wife Elvira Jane, born a Collins, made a decision back in 1873 that a lot of folks would've thought twice about. They left Mississippi, joined up with a wagon train, and pointed themselves toward Texas.

Now, when that wagon train rolled into Nacogdoches, other members of the party looked around, liked what they saw, and called it good. The Herringtons looked around too, and apparently decided they hadn't come far enough. They kept going, pushing on into what the marker calls, plain and simple, the wilderness of Bell County.

That word wilderness is doing a lot of work in this story. This wasn't a town with a post office and a dry goods store waiting for them. This was the deep end of the frontier, and they stepped right in.

They purchased land, built a cabin, and constructed barns and fences for their livestock. And then, in the way of pioneering families, they put down roots in the most fundamental sense. Twelve children were eventually born to the Herringtons.

Twelve. In that cabin, in that wilderness, that family grew into something substantial. John Herrington lived his life on that Bell County land, and when he died in 1903, his family buried him just a few hundred yards from his home.

That act of burial, that quiet choice to lay him close to the place he had carved out of the wilderness, established what is now known as Herrington Cemetery. The burial ground remains active today, still receiving the generations that followed from that long wagon ride west. An association established in 1997 maintains the site, keeping faith with an early pioneering Bell County family.

A man leaves Mississippi, passes through Nacogdoches without stopping, and ends up a few hundred yards from where he finally put down his shovel for good. Some folks find exactly the place they're looking for.

What the marker says

Herrington Cemetery John Granberry Herrington and his wife Elvira Jane (Collins) left Mississippi forTexas in 1873. Although other members of their wagon train stopped in Nacogdoches, the Herringtons chose to continue on to the wilderness of Bell county. Soon after their arrival the Herringtons purchased land, built a cabin, and constructed barns and fences for their livestock. Twelve children were eventually born to the Herringtons. Upon the death of John Herrington in 1903, his family buried him just a few hundred yards from his home, thus establishing Herrington Cemetery. The burial ground remains active today, and an association established in 1997 maintains the site, a tribute to an early pioneering Bell county family.