Millerville Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Millerville Cemetery, out in Erath County. Now, every good Texas community starts somewhere, and this one started with a couple of Missouri transplants. Henry and Lourilla Osborn Miller, immigrants out of Missouri, came down and put roots in Cooke County, Texas, during the 1860s.

Then, around 1876, they bought land in this area, and here's where they got clever. They subdivided that land into small farm tracts and sold them off, piece by piece. Settlers came, bought those farms, and pretty quick you had the makings of a real community.

Those settlers organized a Church of Christ. And in 1877, Rufus and Ann Green Ascue Birdsell donated one acre of land a short distance north of this very site, set aside for school purposes. Things were moving.

By 1881, much of the Millers' original land holdings had been sold, and a community by the name of Millerville had been established. Now out here in early Texas, you didn't really have a town until you had a school, a church, a store, and a place to bury your dead. Millerville had all four.

Birdsell School, a general store, and the Millerville Church of Christ made up the town center in the early 1900s. And the cemetery, well, it was already older than all of them put together, in a manner of speaking. Local tradition says people were laid to rest here even before anyone wrote it down.

But the first recorded burial belongs to Joseph Beaver, Sr., in 1877. Same year the Birdsells gave that acre for the school. In 1881, a couple by the name of Ebaline and Michael Ramfield set aside two acres specifically for cemetery purposes.

The Ramfield line didn't vanish from this land either. Their descendants, through the Giesecke family, kept up a tradition of land ownership in this area all the way into the 1990s. That's the kind of continuity that quietly anchors a place to the earth.

The cemetery has been maintained by an association since 1980, and today it stands as the last physical reminder of the village of Millerville. The church is gone. The store is gone.

The school is gone. But the people who built all of it, they're still here.

What the marker says

Henry and Lourilla Osborn Miller, immigrants from Missouri who settled in Cooke County, Texas, during the 1860s, bought land in this area about 1876 which they subdivided into small farm tracts and sold. Settlers who purchased the farms organized a Church of Christ and in 1877 Rufus and Ann Green Ascue Birdsell donated one acre of land a short distance north of this site for school purposes. By 1881 much of the Miller's original land holdings had been sold and a community by the name of Millerville had been established. Although local tradition indicates earlier interments here, the first recorded burial was that of Joseph Beaver, Sr., in 1877. Two acres were set aside for cemetery purposes in 1881 by Ebaline and Michael Ramfield. Ramfield descendants in the Giesecke family have continued a family tradition of land ownership in this area into the 1990s. Birdsell School, a general store, and the Millerville Church of Christ constituted the town center in the early 1900s. The cemetery served the community and contains the burial of many of the area's earliest settlers and their descendants. Maintained by an association since 1980, the cemetery represents the last physical reminder of the village of Millerville. (1995)