Abbott Springs Meadows Cemetery
Corrigan, Polk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This pioneer graveyard served the early settlement of Asia in what was previously Trinity county. In 1835, Samuel Crissman received a headright of land on Peses (Paces) Creek, and by the 1850s the community of Asia developed. W. Elias and Susan (Towns) meadows were here by 1853, joined later by the Amos and Cynthia (Johnson) Snell and James and Milley Ann (Silcox) Standley families. James Standley’s cabinet and blacksmith shops became the nucleus of the Asia community. The Abbott Springs Meadows Cemetery was likely located on either the Standley or Meadows property. In the mid-1880s, the Trinity and Sabine Railway built through the area and the Sam Allen Lumber Company of Houston constructed a sawmill at Asia. Many new residents arrived, and a school was built to serve the children of the loggers and millworkers. The decline of the lumber industry, due to overharvesting of the timber before 1910, led to the demise of the community. The earliest gravestones here are no longer legible, with several burials marked by fieldstones. The oldest dated burial, of RoxieJ. Standley, dates from January 1868. All graves face east toward Paces Creek, and native hardwoods and plants form the cemetery’s natural landscape. Tombstones reflect organizations such as masons, woodmen of the world, and KJZT (katolika jednota zen texaska, a Czech Catholic fraternal organization). Military veterans includeJames B. Standley (U.S.-Mexico war) and W. Elias Meadows (Civil War). With the decline of the Asia community the site was abandoned and became overgrown. In the 1990s, descendants of those buried here restored the community burial ground.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This pioneer graveyard served the vanished community of Asia, which grew up along Paces Creek after Samuel Crissman received a land headright in 1835. Settlers like the Meadows, Snell, and Standley families made it home, and James Standley's blacksmith and cabinet shops formed its nucleus. When the Trinity and Sabine Railway and a Houston sawmill arrived in the mid-1880s, loggers and mill workers poured in — until the timber was cut out before 1910 and the town faded away. Descendants restored the overgrown burial ground in the 1990s.
Why it matters
The rise and fall of Asia captures the boom-and-bust arc of the East Texas lumber era, when railroads and sawmills built towns overnight and overharvesting erased them just as quickly.
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Related people
- · Samuel Crissman
- · W. Elias Meadows
- · James Standley
Related events
- · Trinity and Sabine Railway construction
- · East Texas lumber boom
Themes & tags
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