Ringo Ferry and Ringo Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Peter and Edy Ringo, she was born a Jones, packed up their nine children and made the long pull from Missouri down to Texas in 1840. Nine children.

That's not a family, that's a small town on wheels. And when the Ringos got to the Sulphur River, they didn't just stop. They set down roots and they set up a ferry.

That ferry became a genuine landmark out here in Red River County, connecting travelers, shippers, and anyone with news to carry between the Red River and central Texas. In the days before bridges, a reliable crossing was about as valuable as anything you could offer a stranger on the road. Peter and Edy's son Abraham carried the family's ambition a step further, acquiring land on both the north and south sides of that ferry in 1842.

Both sides. The man understood how a crossing works. The ferry kept running, kept connecting people, kept earning its place on the map all the way until 1900, when the Ringo Bridge replaced it.

Progress arrives on its own schedule. The bridge itself had a good run too, before it was retired from use in the 1930s. But here's the thing about a place that means something to people.

Even after the bridge went quiet, folks kept right on calling it Ringo's Crossing. The name outlasted the machinery. Now, about two miles northeast of that crossing, and six hundred fifty feet south of where this marker stands, the Ringo family established their cemetery.

Sixteen people found their final rest there. And then, sometime before 1961, the cemetery was destroyed. The marker doesn't say how.

It just says it was gone. Restoration efforts came along later and recovered half the grave markers. Half.

Eight out of sixteen. Some of the Ringos are remembered again, and some are still lost to whatever erased them. A family came from Missouri in 1840, built a crossing that held for sixty years, left a name that held even longer, and left behind a cemetery that had to be found twice.

That's a long way to travel, and a hard place to be forgotten.

What the marker says

Peter and Edy (Jones) Ringo came to Texas from Missouri with their nine children in 1840. The family established a ferry on the Sulphur River which became a local landmark and provided for travel, shipping and communication between the Red River and central Texas areas. Peter and Edy Ringo's son Abraham acquired land on the north and south sides of the ferry in 1842. The ferry ceased operations in 1900, when it was replaced by the Ringo Bridge. The bridge was retired from use in the 1930s, but the area continued to be referred to as Ringo's Crossing. The family cemetery was established about two miles northeast of the crossing and 650 feet south of this site. The resting place of sixteen people, it was destroyed sometime before 1961. Restoration efforts later recovered half the grave markers. (2000)