Spring Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The town of Spring came into being in 1873, planted right along the International and Great Northern line. Not just a whistle-stop, mind you.

Spring grew into an important railroad center, the kind of place that put itself on the map and meant to stay there. And when a community takes root like that, two things tend to follow pretty close behind: a church and a place to lay the faithful to rest. The Sellers family, early landowners in the area, made sure Spring had both.

They donated a portion of their property so the community could have a church and a cemetery to call its own. Now that's the kind of generosity that outlasts almost everything else a person can do. The Sellers name may not be carved on every stone out there, but in a real sense their gift is the ground beneath all of them.

Walk through Spring Cemetery today and you'll find gravestones marking nearly fifty burial sites. But here's the thing that'll settle on you quietly if you let it. Many other burials have no marker at all.

Those souls are there, underneath the Texas soil, and the only record is the ground itself. The oldest legible tombstone belongs to a child, Franklin Leroy Lovins, who died in 1910. That's the oldest one you can still read.

Think about what that says about how much time has softened the stones that came before. Among those interred here are military veterans, including George C. Baker, who served in the Civil War.

Men who carried history in their bones, now resting in a cemetery that is itself a piece of history. The marker puts it plainly, and plainly is exactly right: Spring Cemetery stands as a reminder of Spring's heritage as a railroad town. One family's donated land, a child's name still legible after all these years, veterans and neighbors and unmarked graves stretching into the quiet.

That's Spring, Texas, still keeping its memory.

What the marker says

After Spring's establishment on the International and Great Northern line in 1873, it became an important railroad center. The Sellers family, early area landowners, donated a portion of their property for a community church and cemetery. The oldest legible tombstone is that of a child, Franklin Leroy Lovins, who died in 1910. Military veterans, including George C. Baker, who served in the Civil War, are also interred here. Gravestones mark nearly 50 burial sites, but many other burials are unmarked. The cemetery stands as a reminder of Spring's heritage as a railroad town. (2001)