Thompson Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Benjamin Rush Thompson was born in North Carolina in 1811, and by 1841 he had made his way all across to Milam County, in the Republic of Texas itself. Not the state, mind you.

The Republic. That's the kind of man we're talking about. A Mason.

A Methodist clergyman, according to the census of 1850. A man who put down roots and then, when the time came, picked them back up and moved his family to Robertson County sometime after 1855. He was building something out here.

A life, a legacy, a place on the map. And then, in 1873, he set aside a portion of his land for something quieter. A family burial ground.

The reason, the marker tells us plainly, was the death of his son William M., born in 1852. A father marking that kind of loss in the only permanent way he knew how. Thirteen graves eventually came to rest in that ground.

Only five carry inscribed stones to this day. The others lie there, known perhaps once, unnamed now. Benjamin Rush Thompson himself, born 1811, died 1880, is buried on the land he set aside.

And right beside him, his wife Margaret, born 1819, also gone in that same year, 1880. Two people who came a long way from North Carolina, together at the end, in the ground they chose.

What the marker says

A native of North Carolina, Benjamin Rush Thompson (1811-1880) migrated to Milam County in the Republic of Texas in 1841. Thompson was a Mason and according to the census of 1850, a Methodist clergyman. He moved his family to Robertson County after 1855. Thompson set aside this portion of his land as a family burial ground in 1873, after the death of his son William M. (b. 1852). Only five of the thirteen graves are marked with inscribed stones. Thompson and his wife Margaret (1819-1880) are both buried here.