Dresden Cemetery
Blooming Grove, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The pioneer town of Dresden was originally named for its founder, Ethan Melton (1793-1873), who settled here in 1841. The first post office in Navarro County was established in Melton in 1846. The original three-acre portion of this cemetery, probably opened for burials in the 1840s, was donated to the community by Ethan Melton by 1850. In 1852 the growing settlement, also called "Richland" or "Spanky," was renamed "Dresden" by Jacob Hartzell (1790-1881), who operated an Indian trading post, and Dr. W. S. Robinson (1823-87), the town's first doctor. Many of the early graves in Dresden Cemetery are unmarked or marked with plain stones from nearby Post Oak Creek. Among the oldest marked graves are those of Barnett Hollingsworth (1801-74), one of the 48 Civil War veterans buried here, and the Rev. James Johnson (1803-77), a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. Dresden Methodist Church, serving as a community church, has occupied a site adjacent to the cemetery since the 1850s. Care for the burial ground is provided by the Dresden Cemetery Association, whose members have met annually since its founding in 1877. The plot now (1976) covers 17.09 acres with over 2,000 graves. The pioneer village has vanished, but Dresden Cemetery is still used by descendants of the first settlers.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Ethan Melton settled here in 1841 and gave his name — and later three acres of land — to a pioneer village that grew up around a post office, an Indian trading post, and the county's first doctor. Renamed Dresden in 1852, the town buried its dead in this ground from the 1840s onward, including 48 Civil War veterans and a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. The village itself has vanished, but the cemetery, cared for by an association meeting annually since 1877, still serves descendants of the first settlers.
Why it matters
Dresden Cemetery is a living record of a frontier community that flourished and then disappeared, preserving the memory of ordinary pioneers when the town they built is gone.
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Related people
- · Ethan Melton
- · Jacob Hartzell
- · W. S. Robinson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dresden United Methodist Church
Blooming Grove, TX
In 1847 the Rev. James E. Ferguson—father of future Texas governor James Ferguson—was appointed to Richland, later called Dresden, the first Methodist circuit in Navarro County. Community founder Ethan Melton donated land for a school, cemetery, and church, and a log meetinghouse stood here by 1847; storm and fire each destroyed an early structure before the present building rose nearby. Over the years the congregation helped nurture other churches, including the Blooming Grove Mission.
Raleigh Cemetery
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This burial ground takes its name from Raleigh, an early Navarro County settlement that once supported a church, grist mill, blacksmith, and school around a post office opened in 1900. Its oldest marked grave dates to the 1850s, though the land was not formally set aside for burials until a local couple deeded an acre and a half in 1885, and the cemetery remains in use today.
Brushie Prairie Methodist Church
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Born from meetings in a log schoolhouse, this Methodist fellowship organized south of Frost in 1874 with thirty-five members and the name Post Oak. A local family donated land for a permanent building in 1893, and the congregation took the name Brushie Prairie two decades later. It absorbed a neighboring flock in 1952 before finally disbanding in 1964, though former members still return each June for a homecoming that keeps the memory alive.
Campbell-Elrod Cemetery
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Navarro County pioneer David Wilson Campbell donated ten acres to the Harmony Methodist Church in 1855, setting part aside as a burial ground that came to bear his name. Campbell himself was laid to rest here in 1879, among marked and unmarked graves of early settlers, the earliest documented being a child who died in 1859.