DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Jenkins Springs Cemetery has to say — and friend, it is a story worth slowing down for. Richardson Jenkins was one of the first pioneers to settle in Brown County, and he put down roots on a farm just seven miles northeast of Brownwood. The local spring took his name, and that spring did what good springs do out here — it gave life.
Water for his family first, and then, as the community grew up around him, water for the school and the church too. A man leaves a mark in a lot of ways. Sometimes it's a name on a spring.
Sometimes it's something harder to look at. The earliest known graves in all of Brown County are right there on the Jenkins farm. Four army surveyors — four of them — were ambushed near that farm, killed, and buried on Jenkins's property.
The marker doesn't dress that up and neither will I. Those men came out to do a job and they never left. Then in 1867, Richardson Jenkins himself passed, and his marked grave became the first of its kind in this cemetery.
But it didn't stay a small plot for long. Over the years, veterans found their rest here — men who served in the Civil War, World War One, World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Generation after generation, carrying the weight of this country's hardest chapters, and ending up in the same quiet ground in Brown County.
The Jenkins Springs Cemetery Association was formed in 1964, and they have kept this place ever since. Some land just accumulates history whether it asks for it or not. The Jenkins farm asked for nothing — and got everything.
What the marker says
JENKINS SPRINGS CEMETERY RICHARDSON JENKINS, ONE OF THE FIRST PIONEERS TO SETTLE IN BROWN COUNTY, PURCHASED A FARM JUST SEVEN MILES NORTHEAST OF BROWNWOOD. THE LOCAL SPRING WAS SOON NAMED AFTER HIM AND PROVIDED WATER FOR HIS FAMILY AND, LATER, FOR THE SCHOOL AND CHURCH. THE EARLIEST KNOWN GRAVES IN BROWN COUNTY ARE FOUND ON THE JENKINS FARM BELONGING TO FOUR ARMY SURVEYORS WHO WERE AMBUSHED NEAR THE FARM, KILLED, AND BURIED ON JENKINS" PROPERTY. THE FIRST MARKED GRAVE IS THAT OF RICHARDSON JENKINS HIMSELF WHO PASSED IN 1867. AMONG THOSE BURIED HERE ARE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR, WWI, WWII, KOREAN WAR AND THE VIETNAM WAR. THE JENKINS SPRINGS CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, FORMED IN 1964, MAINTAINS THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2011