Tuggle Springs Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Out here in Red River County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding onto people's memories since before the Civil War ended. This is the story of Tuggle Springs Cemetery.

Andrew Jackson Tuggle was born in 1815, and somewhere around 1850 he packed up his life in Tennessee and headed to Texas, bringing his wife Elizabeth along for that long journey west. He was a farmer, and this is where he put down roots. Now, for a good stretch, life out here was just the quiet work of building something from nothing.

And then 1864 came. A mother and an infant died. And Andrew Jackson Tuggle did something that speaks to the kind of man he was.

He set aside property, right then and there, dedicated to use as a cemetery, and also for a church and a school. That ground had a purpose now. As more settlers came into the area, they found that burial ground waiting for them, and they began to use it.

In time it took the name that still marks it today, named for Tuggle himself and for the natural springs that sit nearby. The people resting there tell a long history. Early settlers, yes, but also veterans of conflicts stretching back to the Civil War.

You can still walk among the stones and see Woodmen of the World markers, grave slabs, and vertical stones standing quiet in the Texas air. Tuggle's wife Elizabeth lived on until 1895, long after her husband passed in 1877. And the care of this place has never really stopped.

The Tuggle Springs Cemetery Association organized in 1960 and continues to look after that ground to this day. Andrew Jackson Tuggle set aside some land in a year of grief, and it turns out that act of grief became an act of permanence. Some things you do in sorrow end up lasting longer than almost anything else you could name.

What the marker says

This burial ground was established by Andrew Jackson Tuggle (1815-1877) a farmer who moved here from Tennessee c. 1850 with his wife Elizabeth (1819-1895). When a mother and infant died in 1864, Tuggle set aside property for use as a cemetery and for a church and school. As settlers came to the area, they began to use the burial ground, which is named for Tuggle and for nearby natural springs. Besides early settlers, others buried here include veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War. Today, the Tuggle Springs Cemetery Association, organized in 1960, continues to care for the burial ground, which features Woodmen of the World markers, grave slabs and vertical stones. Historic Texas Cemetery-2007