Edgewood Cemetery
Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Earliest grave here is that of Lizzie Richardson, a pioneer child who died in the summer of 1845. The site for the cemetery was chosen by Roderick Rawlins, one of the area's first settlers; he was buried here in 1848. Among the graves in the older section is that of James Lemon, veteran of the American Revolution, who died on July 4, 1858. The land was not officially set aside as a cemetery until it was acquired from Thomas McKee Ellis in 1877. Since then the Lancaster Cemetery Association has bought additional land and currently maintains over 1500 graves. Marker Donor: Lancaster Historical Society
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Edgewood Cemetery grew organically from the graves of North Texas pioneers, beginning with a child, Lizzie Richardson, laid to rest in the summer of 1845 as the Republic of Texas was about to join the Union. Early settler Roderick Rawlins chose the ground and was buried here in 1848, and it holds a veteran of the American Revolution who died on the Fourth of July, 1858. Not formally dedicated as a cemetery until 1877, it now shelters more than 1,500 graves under the care of a local association.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a layered record of frontier Lancaster's first families, preserving the memory of settlers who carried the young nation westward into the Texas prairie.
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Related people
- · Lizzie Richardson
- · Roderick Rawlins
- · James Lemon
- · Thomas McKee Ellis
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rawlins Homestead
Lancaster, TX
The Rawlins family settled this stretch of Dallas County in 1845, and in 1855 Roderick A. Rawlins — who had married his teacher, Virginia Bledsoe, daughter of Lancaster's founder — began building here. After serving as a Confederate officer during the Civil War, Captain Rawlins rebuilt his home in the fashionable Greek Revival style. Standing halfway between Dallas and Waxahachie, the house became a welcome stop where travelers drew water and camped by the well.
W. A. Strain Home
Lancaster, TX
This ornate frame Victorian was built in 1895–96 for W. A. and Minnie Strain, whose pioneer family had bought the Lancaster property back in 1846. Its fishscale shingling and elaborate porch trim were the work of noted Dallas architect James E. Flanders of the Flanders-Moad firm. The Strains' son later raised his own family of four daughters in the house, keeping it in the family across generations.
First United Methodist Church of Lancaster
Lancaster, TX
Organized on May 25, 1868, by the Rev. Andrew Davis, this is among the oldest churches in North Texas, its early members worshiping in the Masonic Hall until a building rose in 1874. That first sanctuary reflected Victorian custom with separate entrances and seating for men and women. A larger church followed in 1911, and the present sanctuary, built in 1957, stands on the site of the original.
Town of Lancaster
Lancaster, TX
Kentucky-born A. Bledsoe settled here in 1846 and, with the Rawlins family, laid out this town around 1852, naming it Lancaster after the Kentucky town his grandfather had founded. Stores, churches, a school, and mills soon clustered on the one-square-mile townsite, and during the Civil War a Confederate pistol factory operated here. The town weathered repeated fires and the rise and fall of Randolph College, living for a century as a cotton-market town whose fortunes rose and fell with the crop.