Hudgins Family Cemetery
Hungerford, Wharton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Beginning in 1851, family members of Joel and Rachel Hudgins used this site as a burial ground. Property including the site was granted to Alexander Jackson in 1824 and inherited by his daughter Mary. Upon her death in 1836, it transferred to her husband, James McKenzie, who wed Rachel Ann Northington three years later. He died in 1845, leaving Rachel with three children. She gained ownership of the Jackson land as well as McKenzie's other property, all part of what became Wharton County in 1846. The next year, Rachel wed Joel Hudgins, a widower with one child. The couple had nine more children, but only six of the thirteen survived to adulthood. Joel served as a civic leader and established the Hudginsville School near his home in this vicinity. After his death and burial in Chappell Hill, Texas in 1873, Rachel and her sons increased the family's holdings. She died in 1903. In 1977, grandson Edgar Hudgins, along with his sons, purchased the land from relatives. His grave, dating to 1986, was the first here since that of his grandmother more than 80 years earlier. Today, his heirs continue to care for the burial ground. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2003
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground traces to 1851, when the family of Joel and Rachel Hudgins began using it, though the land's story reaches back to an 1824 grant. Rachel had already outlived one husband and buried children before marrying Joel, a widower, in 1847; of their thirteen children together, only six reached adulthood—a stark measure of frontier mortality. Joel served as a civic leader and founded a local school, and generations of descendants have continued to tend the cemetery into modern times.
Why it matters
Family cemeteries like this one preserve the intimate, often heartbreaking record of the pioneer families who settled early Texas and built its first communities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Joel Hudgins
- · Rachel Ann Northington Hudgins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Post West Bernard Station
Hungerford, TX
In the summer of 1837 the young Republic of Texas established Post West Bernard Station as an ordnance depot, stockpiling cannons, rifles, muskets, powder, and shot. Sited on the West Bernard River, it helped shield Houston — then the capital — against the threat of a Mexican invasion. Officers like Lt. H. L. Grush and Capt. Martin K. Snell held the post under harsh conditions until 1838–39, when its arms were transferred to the new Houston Arsenal.
Site of Quinan Community
Hungerford, TX
Founded about 1872 on the Wharton-Richmond road, the village of Quinan was named for Judge George E. Quinan, an Irish immigrant who served in the Texas Senate and on the Court of Civil Appeals and helped found the State Bar of Texas. The community had a school, a Methodist church, and a post office in Habermacher's store, but it declined after nearby Hungerford was founded in 1882, and its post office and businesses eventually moved away.
J. D. Hudgins Ranch
Hungerford, TX
Joel Hudgins came to the Republic of Texas in 1839 and settled near Hungerford, where after his death his widow and four sons expanded the family's land and cattle. In 1915 J.D. Hudgins and his children bought their first Brahman cows—descendants of stock brought from India in 1906—and helped found the American Brahman Breeders Association. With the 1933 bull 'Manso,' the ranch developed one of the world's largest registered American Gray Brahman herds, exporting cattle to dozens of countries.
Josiah Dawson Hudgins
Hungerford, TX
Josiah Dawson Hudgins, born in 1852 to a pioneer family that reached Texas in 1839, grew from a country storekeeper into a leading rancher of Wharton County. He and his brothers bought land and cattle, ran a cotton gin and gristmill, and moved their community to the new railroad town of Hungerford. In 1906 J.D. imported Brahman cattle suited to the humid Gulf Coast and, with his son Walter, helped develop and organize the American Brahman breed.