HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Antioch Cemetery

Teague, Freestone County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Shortly after the Civil War, Edward Ezell, Sr. (d. 1903) and his wife, Frankie (Howard), gave about two acres for this cemetery. It was later enlarged under the direction of the Antioch Cemetery Association. In 1905, residents of the Luna community began holding an annual memorial service here. The community, with a population of 250, was once the site of a church, grist mill, school, blacksmith shop, and general store, but in 1906 the railroad bypassed Luna, and the settlement began to decline. The pioneer burial ground is all that remains.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Shortly after the Civil War, Edward Ezell, Sr. and his wife Frankie gave about two acres for this burial ground, later expanded by the Antioch Cemetery Association. It served the Luna community—a village of 250 with a church, grist mill, school, blacksmith, and store—until the railroad bypassed Luna in 1906 and the settlement declined. Today the cemetery is all that remains.

Why it matters

It marks how the placement of a railroad could decide whether a Texas community thrived or vanished, leaving its graveyard as the last witness to a lost town.

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Related people

  • · Edward Ezell, Sr.

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionGhost TownsLandmark

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