Adina Cemetery
Lexington, Lee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Following his service in the Civil War, Alabama native R.L. Cain came to Texas and settled in this area. In 1867, he deeded five acres to Lee County for a cemetery for this area, known then as Cain School Community. The settlement's name changed to Adina when its post office was established, and the cemetery became known as the Adina Community Cemetery. Predating Cain's deed for the cemetery, the earliest known burials here are the unmarked grave of an infant, the child of a family camping in the area, and that of Martha Cane Slaughter, who died in 1871. In 2001, six burials from the Mcdavid and Craddock families, originally located in nearby Craddock Cemetery, in Bastrop County, were reinterred here next to members of their extended families. The graves include that of William B. Craddock, one of many victims of the violence that plagued the area in the 1870s and 1880s. Maintained and operated by the Adina Cemetery Association, the graveyard includes burials of veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The headstones in the well-shaded burial ground tell the stories of the early residents of Adina and surrounding communities. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After serving in the Civil War, Alabama native R.L. Cain settled in this part of Lee County and in 1867 deeded five acres for a community cemetery, then known as Cain School Community. The settlement was renamed Adina when its post office opened, and the graveyard took the name with it; among its oldest burials is Martha Cane Slaughter, who died in 1871. In 2001 several graves — including that of William B. Craddock, a victim of the lawless violence that plagued the area in the 1870s and 1880s — were reinterred here beside relatives.
Why it matters
Adina Cemetery holds veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam alongside frontier settlers, tracing a Central Texas community's history from Reconstruction-era violence to a century of service.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
After the Civil War, Texas filled up fast. Veterans and families from the war-torn states of the Deep South moved west looking for cheap land and a fresh start, and the blackland and post-oak country of Central Texas drew many of them. Small farming settlements sprang up, often named for a founding family, a school, or a church.
Those years were also among the most violent in Texas history. Reconstruction brought bitter political division, and much of rural Central Texas suffered from feuds, outlaw gangs, livestock theft, and killings that local law enforcement often could not stop. For ordinary families, the 1870s and 1880s could be deeply unsettled.
Against that backdrop, communities did what they could to put down roots: they built schools, opened post offices, and set aside ground for their dead. Adina Cemetery comes out of that effort to build a settled life in an unsettled time.
People & events
The man at the center of this story is R.L. Cain, an Alabama native who came to Texas after serving in the Civil War. He settled in this area, then known as the Cain School Community, and in 1867 he deeded five acres for a community cemetery. When a post office was later established, the settlement took the name Adina, and the burial ground became the Adina Community Cemetery.
People were buried here before any deed existed. The earliest known burials include an unmarked grave of an infant, the child of a family who was camping in the area and moved on. Another early grave belongs to Martha Cane Slaughter, who died in 1871. That child's grave, its name long lost, quietly shows how hard and transient life could be for families on the move.
In 2001, six burials from the McDavid and Craddock families were moved here from the nearby Craddock Cemetery in Bastrop County and reinterred beside their extended families. One of them is William B. Craddock, one of many people killed in the violence that plagued the area in the 1870s and 1880s. Moving those graves brought scattered kin back together in death.
Its place in the American story
Adina Cemetery tells, in miniature, a story that played out across postwar America. Southern veterans like R.L. Cain went west after defeat and built new communities on the frontier, helping drive the growth that turned Texas from a lightly settled state into an agricultural powerhouse.
It also records the price of that growth. Grave markers here tie back to the lawlessness that troubled much of the post-Reconstruction South and West, a time when private feuds and outlaw violence could take lives that the courts never accounted for. A name like William B. Craddock's links a family plot to that larger and darker chapter.
Finally, the cemetery follows a community through a century of national service. Veterans of the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam rest here, so a single country graveyard reflects nearly every major American conflict from the 1860s to the 1970s. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002.
If you visit
The marker describes a well-shaded burial ground, and that shade makes a walk here pleasant even on a warm Texas day. Take your time among the headstones. The dates, the family names repeated across generations, and the veterans' markers together tell the story of Adina and the communities around it.
Look for the reinterred McDavid and Craddock graves, placed beside their relatives, and for the veterans' stones spanning more than a hundred years of service. Remember that the infant's grave from the earliest days has no marker; its unseen presence is part of what makes the place moving.
The cemetery is still maintained by a local association and remains in use, so visit quietly and respectfully. It makes a thoughtful stop on a back-roads drive through Lee County and the rural country between Austin and the Brazos valley, where small cemeteries like this one hold much of the region's history.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · R.L. Cain
- · Martha Cane Slaughter
- · William B. Craddock
Themes & tags
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