Richardson Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. One mile southwest of where you're rolling right now, there's a piece of ground that holds more Ellis County history than most folks ever slow down to consider. The Richardson Cemetery.

And the story starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with a family and a name on the land. John I. Richardson was born in 1839.

By the time the Civil War came calling, he rode with the 12th Texas Confederate Cavalry. He was a Mason. He would go on to serve as county surveyor.

A man who, by trade and by temperament, knew exactly where things stood and how to mark them. In 1865, John married Ann Elizabeth Reagor, born in 1849. Now, both of them carried Reagor blood, descendants of the very family for which Reagor Springs was named.

So when you say these two people were connected to this place, you are not speaking loosely. The roots run deep and they run together. The land around Reagor Springs was their world.

Then, in 1879, a cousin, Robert S. Reagor, passed away and was buried right there on the Richardsons' property. That's how a family plot begins, quiet and unannounced, with one grave and a grief that nobody planned for.

By 1890, the Richardsons made it formal. They deeded that land specifically for use as a cemetery. Two of their six children are buried there as well.

The Richardsons themselves eventually left Reagor Springs near the turn of the century, but the ground they gave did not stop receiving the people of that community. Other early area families came to rest there too. Thirty graves in all, each one a thread in the fabric of early Ellis County.

The marker says it plainly, and I think it says it right: those interred in the Richardson Cemetery helped to forge Reagor Springs and the county around it. Thirty souls. One deeded acre of purpose.

That's not a footnote. That's a foundation.

What the marker says

(one mile SW) John I. Richardson (1839-1922), county surveyor, Mason, and veteran of the 12th Texas Confederate Cavalry, married Ann Elizabeth Reagor (1849-1923) in 1865. Both were descendants of the family for which Reagor Springs was named. A cousin, Robert S. Reagor, was buried on the Richardsons' property in 1879. In 1890 the land was deeded for use as a cemetery. Also buried here are two of the Richardsons' six children. The Richardsons left Reagor Springs near the turn of the century. Other early area families also are buried in the cemetery, which contains thirty graves. Those interred in the Richardson Cemetery helped to forge Reagor Springs and early Ellis County. (1998)