Burnam Square and Cemetery
Ennis, Ellis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
William R. and Edeline House bought the land on which Burnam Square and Cemetery were located in 1856 for the price of a slave named John. In 1861, after her husband died, Edeline House had the 25-block town laid out and donated one acre for a graveyard. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad bypassed Burnam Square in 1871 and founded Ennis. Residents and businesses moved here, causing Burnam Square to decline. The 40-grave burial site is all that remains of the once thriving community of Burnam Square.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1856 William R. and Edeline House bought this land in a bargain paid with an enslaved man named John, and after her husband's death Edeline laid out a 25-block town and donated an acre for a graveyard in 1861. When the Houston and Texas Central Railroad bypassed Burnam Square in 1871 and founded Ennis instead, residents and businesses drifted away. Today a small burial ground of some forty graves is all that survives of the vanished community.
Why it matters
Burnam Square's fate—founded on a slave sale and erased by a railroad's route—distills two forces that shaped and unmade antebellum Texas towns.
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Related people
- · William R. House
- · Edeline House
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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