Ireland Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Ireland Cemetery, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Out here in Hamilton County, there's a piece of ground that started as one family's private sorrow and grew into something that belongs to a whole community. It's called Ireland Cemetery, and the story behind it reaches back more than a century and a half.

The man at the center of it all was Daniel Webster Edwards, known to most folks simply as D.W. His regiment, the 11th Missouri Infantry, disbanded while it was still in Texas, in 1865. And D.W.

Edwards, well, he stayed. Texas had him now. The very next year, in 1866, he married Elizabeth Moore Roberts, a widow with children of her own.

Then, in 1871, he purchased land in this area of Hamilton County. Roots were going down. And his parents, Micajah and Matilda Edwards, born a Poor before she married, they made the trip from Missouri too.

So did other family. Allison Micajah Edwards came. William P.

Edwards and his wife, Eliza Jane Faubion Edwards, came. And several members of the Faubion family followed along. Together, D.W. and Elizabeth raised her two children alongside children of their own, building a life on that Hamilton County land.

But the ground that would become Ireland Cemetery first received someone in grief. In October of 1873, the Edwards family buried a one-year-old boy. His name was Sterling P.

Edwards. His is the first marked grave on the site. Several other stones stand nearby, indicating graves that carry no markings at all.

That is often the way with old family plots. The names go quiet before the stones do. What began as the Edwards family burial ground eventually grew outward, the way communities do.

And in 1920, Daniel Lee Edwards, one of D.W. and Elizabeth's own children, donated the graveyard to the Ireland Cemetery Association. A private sorrow, given over to the public trust. The families interred here across the years represent the cultures, occupations, and customs of that community.

The names on the stones tell you who built this corner of Texas. Austin, Coston, Davis, Dooley, Faubion, Hampton, Huckabee, Hull, Kight, Laing, Lovelace, Neyland, Oldham, Pearson, Pietzsch, Taylor, Tyler, Walker, Williams, Walsleben, Wilson. Names from Missouri and names that put down new roots.

Widows who remarried, soldiers who stayed, parents who followed their children across state lines. All of them, eventually, coming to rest in the same patch of Hamilton County ground. That little one-year-old boy, Sterling P.

Edwards, was the first. But he was far from the last. And the place that started as his family's grief became a whole community's memory.

What the marker says

Ireland Cemetery This site was once the family burial plot for the Daniel Webster (D.W.) Edwards family. The first marked grave is for his one-year-old son, Sterling P. Edwards, dating to October 1873. Several stones indicate other unmarked graves. Edwards settled in Texas after his Civil War regiment, the 11th Missouri Infantry, disbanded while in Texas in 1865. The next year, he married the widowed Elizabeth Moore Roberts. In 1871, he purchased land in this area, and his parents, Micajah and Matilda (Poor), later moved here from Missouri. Other family members who came include Allison Micajah Edwards, William P. and his wife, Eliza Jane (Faubion) Edwards, and several Faubion family members. In this community, D.W. and Elizabeth reared her two children and children of their own, including Daniel Lee Edwards, who, in 1920, donated the graveyard to the Ireland Cemetery Association. Early families interred here represent the cultures, occupations and customs of the community. Family names include Austin, Coston, Davis, Dooley, Faubion, Hampton, Huckabee, Hull, Kight, Laing, Lovelace, Neyland, Oldham, Pearson, Pietzsch, Taylor, Tyler, Walker, Williams, Walsleben and Wilson. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002