Ebenezer Cemetery
Henderson, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
EBENEZER CEMETERY IN THE MID 1800s, A COMMUNITY WAS FORMED ON WHAT IS NOW FM 3310. BY 1884, IT WAS CALLED THE MANSINGER NEIGHBORHOOD BUT WAS CHANGED TO THE EBENEZER COMMUNITY AFTER A CHURCH AND SCHOOL ORGANIZED. MOST OF THE EARLY FAMILIES WERE INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE, RANCHING AND SHARECROPPING. THE CEMETERY BEGAN WITH THE FIRST KNOWN BURIAL BELONGING TO JULIA KITCHENS IN 1886. THOSE BURIED HERE ARE PIONEER FAMILIES, U.S. VETERANS DATING FROM THE CIVIL WAR, MASONS AND WOODMEN OF THE WORLD. EBENEZER CEMETERY IS SITUATED IN A RURAL SETTING WITH CREPE MYRTLES, ROSES AND CEDAR TREES. THE CEMETERY CONTINUES TO SERVE AS A FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR THE DESCENDANTS OF EARLY PIONEERS. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the mid-1800s a farming and ranching settlement grew up along what is now FM 3310, known first as the Mansinger neighborhood and later as Ebenezer after its church and school. The cemetery's recorded history opens with the 1886 burial of Julia Kitchens, and among those resting here are pioneer families, Masons, Woodmen of the World, and veterans reaching back to the Civil War. Shaded by crepe myrtles and cedar, it still serves the descendants of those first settlers.
Why it matters
Small rural cemeteries preserve the names and networks—church, school, lodge, and family—that held frontier agricultural communities together.
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Related people
- · Julia Kitchens
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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