Birdston Community and Cemetery
Streetman, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When V. I. Bird opened a general mercantile store about 2 miles to the northwest in the 1860s, Birdston community was founded. As local economy then depended on cotton, a gin was soon built near the store. In a few years, store and gin were relocated a mile east of this cemetery, at halfway point on main road from Fairfield to Corsicana. The Birdston post office opened Dec. 11, 1866. By 1867 the community also had a school; by 1872 a church building, used by all faiths. The cemetery was opened on land donated by Edd and Juliett Burleson for church and school purposes. The first grave, located near the church, was that of a child, Mary Rayburn, whose family had been traveling from Fairfield to Corsicana, stopping at Sherrard's Boarding House in Birdston, where the child fell ill and died. A second grave was dug near the church when T. J. Gilbert died on Dec. 5, 1872. By 1888 additional cemetery land was sold to trustees by Mrs. Burleson. When Birdston was bypassed in 1909 by Burlington Rock Island Railroad, it lost its post office and businesses; the school closed in 1920. The cemetery has continued in use through ensuing years, and in the 1950s had a new section annexed by purchase of acreage from the Charley Gregory Estate. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Birdston grew up around the general store V. I. Bird opened in the 1860s, and because cotton ruled the local economy, a gin soon followed. Sited at the halfway point on the Fairfield–Corsicana road, the community gained a post office in 1866, a school by 1867, and a shared church by 1872, while its cemetery began with the grave of a child who fell ill while her family was traveling through. When the railroad bypassed the town in 1909, its businesses and post office faded, though the cemetery endures.
Why it matters
Birdston's rise and quiet decline trace a familiar arc of rural Texas—cotton and a crossroads store make a town, and a railroad routed elsewhere unmakes it.
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Related people
- · V. I. Bird
Themes & tags
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