Mills Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Mills Cemetery, out in Dallas County. Now, when you talk about the early days of eastern Dallas County, you're talkin' about country that didn't have much to offer except land, creek water, and the willingness to stake a claim on both. Edward C.

Mills had all three. He and his family were among the first settlers to push into that part of the county, arriving in 1847, and what they came for was a Peters Colony headright, six hundred and forty acres sitting along Rowlett's Creek. That is a serious piece of ground, and they intended to hold it.

Seven years after they arrived, in October of 1854, the land gave back its first solemn accounting. Edward's second wife, Elizabeth Collins Mills, was buried there, and with that burial, Mills Cemetery was born. One point six acres set aside for family.

A quiet plot beside the creek. That's how it started. But quiet plots have a way of growing, and over the years, this one did exactly that.

At least three tracts of adjoining land were annexed into the cemetery over time, the ground expanding to hold more names, more generations, more stories. Today the cemetery carries the graves of Peters Colonists: Edward himself, and his sons James and John Mills, along with early generations of the family and war veterans. And somewhere along the way it stopped being only a family matter.

It became a burial ground for the wider Rowlett and Garland communities too. That's the thing about a cemetery founded by people who showed up in 1847 and decided to stay. Sooner or later, the whole neighborhood ends up with them.

What the marker says

Edward C. Mills and his family were among the first settlers in eastern Dallas County, arriving in 1847, to claim a Peters Colony 640-acre headright on Rowlett's Creek. Mills Cemetery was established in October 1854 with the burial of Edward's second wife, Elizabeth Collins Mills. Originally a 1.6-acre burial ground for the Mills family, the cemetery has been enlarged over the years by the annexation of at least three tracts of adjoining land. The cemetery contains the graves of Peters Colonists Edward and sons James and John Mills, as well as early generations of the Mills family and war veterans, but also serves the Rowlett and Garland communities.