King-Williams Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Bardin King and Elizabeth Susan Salter met and married in Lowndes County, Alabama, back in 1842. And right away, you get the sense these were people who didn't stay put.

The very next year, 1843, they loaded a wagon, gathered up their young son William and Susan's parents and her brothers and sisters, and pointed themselves west. They settled first in Louisiana, where Bardin made a go of it growing cotton. Successful enough, by all accounts.

But the late 1850s brought that familiar Texas pull, and the extended family moved again, touching down in Navarro County and Washington County before finally arriving in Limestone County in 1870. When Bardin King found his land, he committed to it. He and Elizabeth bought one hundred and eighty-nine acres from John and Lucinda Wilson, and the family got to work raising cotton and grains, planting roots in the Headsville community.

Bardin wasn't just a farmer, either. He was a lay minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church, about a mile to the south, and that calling ran deep in the family. Sons John, Cullen, and Moses followed him into lay ministry at the same church.

Youngest son Finley went further still and became an ordained Baptist minister. Bardin was also a charter member of the local Masonic lodge and active in the Patrons of Husbandry, the Grange. He was a man building something larger than a farm.

Then in March of 1879, Susan King died. The family buried her right there on the land. That was the beginning of something.

Two years later, in 1881, Bardin divided his holdings among his nine living children and set aside one acre specifically as a graveyard. The land around Susan's resting place became a dedicated cemetery. Daughter Susan Leuticia had married a man named Robert Holden Williams, and she and Robert and their children carried on cotton and corn farming on the family land, keeping the King name and the Williams name woven together across the generations.

Over time, ten members of the King and Williams families were buried there, in what came to be known first as King Williams Memorial Cemetery and then as King-Williams Cemetery. The last burial was Robert H. Williams, who died in 1944.

Today the graveyard features historic limestone headstones, shaded by pine and cedar trees. And there is one more presence worth naming. Family tradition holds that an African American freedman named Speight is also buried in that cemetery, in an unmarked grave.

No stone marks the spot. But the tradition holds him there, on the same acre of ground, among the Kings and the Williams family. That's the whole of it, one acre, one family, one unnamed man the family chose to remember anyway.

What the marker says

Bardin King (1819-1891) and Elizabeth Susan Salter (1822-1879) married in Lowndes County, Alabama in 1842. The following year, they traveled west by wagon with their young son William and Susan's parents and siblings, settling in Louisiana. Bardin was successful growing cotton, but in the late 1850s the extended family moved to Texas, settling first in Navarro and Washington counties before arriving in Limestone County in 1870. The Kings bought 189 acres here from John and Lucinda Wilson, and the family raised cotton and grains, and were active in the Headsville community. Bardin King was a lay minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church (1 mi. S), and sons John, Cullen and Moses also served later in the same capacity, while youngest son Finley became an ordained Baptist minister. Bardin was a charter member of the local Masonic lodge and active in the Patrons of Husbandry, or Grange. Susan King died in March 1879 and the family buried her here on the farm. The surrounding land became a dedicated cemetery in 1881, when Bardin divided his holdings among his nine living children and set aside one acre for a graveyard. Daughter Susan Leuticia married Robert Holden Williams, and they and their children later continued cotton and corn farming on the family land. Ten members of the King and Williams families were buried in what became known as King Williams Memorial Cemetery and then King-Williams Cemetery. Robert H. Williams died in 1944 and was the last to be buried in the graveyard, which features historic limestone headstones shaded by pine and cedar trees. Family tradition holds an African American freedman named Speight is also buried here in an unmarked grave. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006