Richland Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Back in 1858, Jesse S. and Mary Ann Thomas packed up their family and left Georgia behind, bound for Texas. They put down roots first in Rusk and Smith counties, feeling out the land, getting the measure of the place.

But Texas has a way of pulling people deeper in, and by 1873 the Thomas family had relocated again, this time to this very area, where they purchased land along Richland Creek. Now, when a family finds the right piece of ground, you can tell. They know it.

And the Thomases knew it. Ten years they worked that land, built a life, became part of the fabric of the community. Then in 1883, Jesse and Mary Ann did something that says everything about the kind of people they were.

They deeded three acres, set it aside, given over to the community as a cemetery. Not sold. Deeded.

The oldest documented grave belongs to Mary E. McCleskey, born in 1826, who came to rest here in 1883, the same year the ground was consecrated for that purpose. Think on that a moment.

The ink on the deed barely dry, and already the land was doing what it was meant to do. The years kept turning, and Richland Cemetery kept receiving. Area pioneers found their rest here.

Five generations of the Thomas family are interred in that ground, roots going down as deep as any oak along the creek. And the veterans, Lord, the veterans. Men who served in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Six wars. Six separate calls that this community answered. All of them come home, in the end, to those three acres Jesse and Mary Ann Thomas set aside along Richland Creek.

What the marker says

Jesse S. and Mary Ann Thomas brought their family to Texas from Georgia in 1858, settling first in Rusk and Smith counties. They relocated to this area in 1873 and purchased land along Richland Creek. In 1883 they deeded three acres of land for a community cemetery. The oldest documented grave here is that of Mary E. McCleskey (1826-1883). Others interred in the graveyard include area pioneers; five generations of the Thomas family; and veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.