Lockridge Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of Lockridge Cemetery in Rusk County. Henry T. Lockridge came to Rusk County, Texas in the 1850s.

He put down roots in that East Texas soil, and then the Civil War came along and pulled him away. He served in the Confederate Army, and when it was over, he came back. In 1863, he purchased land from a man named Charles Lewis.

And that land, that piece of Rusk County ground, became the place where Henry and his wife, Jane Hunter Lockridge, lived out the rest of their days. Now, somewhere on that property, there is a cemetery. Lockridge Cemetery.

And here is where the story gets interesting, because the oldest marked grave belongs to someone named Sarah M. Hunter, who died in 1881. Marked.

That word is doing a lot of work. Because it is believed that earlier burials exist out there, quiet and unannounced, waiting under the ground without a stone to speak for them. The cemetery went quiet after the 1940s.

Inactive, the record says. Decades passed. The land around it, much of it, stayed in the hands of Lockridge descendants, which is the kind of loyalty to a place that speaks without saying a word.

Then, in 2004, the cemetery stirred again. The first burial since those long quiet decades was a grandson of Henry T. and Jane Hunter Lockridge. The family came back to the land their people never really left.

Some places hold on to their families. And some families hold on right back.

What the marker says

Henry T. Lockridge settled in Rusk County, Texas during the 1850s. After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, he purchased land from Charles Lewis in 1863. Henry and his wife, Jane Hunter Lockridge, lived the remainder of their lives on the property. Lockridge Cemetery is also located on the property. Although the oldest marked grave is that of Sarah M. Hunter, who died in 1881, it is believed that earlier burials exist. The cemetery became inactive after the 1940s, but there have been several burials at the site since 2004, beginning with the burial of a grandson of Henry T. and Jane Hunter Lockridge. Much of the land surrounding the cemetery is still owned by Lockridge descendants. Historic Texas Cemetery-2008