Wilkinson Family Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passin' it along. November of 1866. The war was barely cold, and Henry and Sarah Ann Wilkinson, she was born a Weldon, loaded up everything they had into two ox-drawn wagons and left Mississippi behind.

They had seven children with them. Seven. And those oxen weren't exactly setting any land-speed records.

Sixty-two days, that journey lasted. Sixty-two days of dust and slow miles and whatever the road threw at a family trusting a pair of wagons to carry them to a brand-new life. They arrived near this very site in January of 1867, and Texas became home.

They rented land at first, the way a lot of families did when they were just getting their feet under them. Then in 1869, they made their move, purchased seven hundred and sixty-two acres and planted themselves for real. Built a small log home.

Put down roots the way people did back then, not with paperwork and ceremony but with sweat and seasons. The community that grew up around them got a name, the way communities do. They called it Hugh, named in honor of a Wilkinson grandson.

Later on, that name was changed to Antioch. The Wilkinsons had become the kind of people a place gets named after, respected leaders in that small rural world they'd helped build. But 1879 was a hard year for this family.

Henry Wilkinson died on May the twenty-sixth, the result of a farming accident. The land that had given the family so much took its toll on the man who'd driven those wagons sixty-two days to reach it. He was buried near his home, in a grove of trees, and that grove, quiet and shaded, became the Wilkinson Family Cemetery.

He wouldn't rest there alone for long. His son John Q. A.

Wilkinson died that same year, 1879. Virgil A. followed in 1881. And Sarah Ann, who had made that November journey alongside Henry, who had built a life on those 762 acres, who had outlasted so much, Sarah Ann died in 1901.

She was laid to rest there too, along with a number of other relatives and descendants over the years. The land surrounding that cemetery stayed in Wilkinson hands all the way until 1938. The cemetery itself, half an acre, is still maintained by Wilkinson descendants, many of whom live right here in Johnson County to this day.

Two ox-drawn wagons. Sixty-two days. And the family never really left.

What the marker says

Henry and Sarah Ann (Weldon) Wilkinson and their seven children left their former home in Mississippi in November 1866 to travel to Texas. Their journey in two ox-drawn wagons lasted 62 days, and they settled near this site in January 1867. The family rented land upon their arrival, and in 1869 purchased 762 acres on which they established a farm. They built a small log home and became respected leaders in their small rural community, initially named Hugh in honor of a Wilkinson grandson. The community's name later was changed to Antioch. Henry Wilkinson died on May 26, 1879, as a result of a farming accident. He was buried near his home in a grove of trees which became known as the Wilkinson Family Cemetery. His wife Sarah Ann (d. 1901) and sons John Q. A. (d. 1879) and Virgil A. (d. 1881) also were buried in the family graveyard, as were a number of other relatives and descendants. The land surrounding the cemetery remained in the Wilkinson family until 1938. The half-acre site is maintained by Wilkinson descendants, many of whom still reside in this area of Johnson County. (1992)