Jenkins Springs Cemetery
Brownwood, Brown County, Texas
Marker Inscription
JENKINS SPRINGS CEMETERY RICHARDSON JENKINS, ONE OF THE FIRST PIONEERS TO SETTLE IN BROWN COUNTY, PURCHASED A FARM JUST SEVEN MILES NORTHEAST OF BROWNWOOD. THE LOCAL SPRING WAS SOON NAMED AFTER HIM AND PROVIDED WATER FOR HIS FAMILY AND, LATER, FOR THE SCHOOL AND CHURCH. THE EARLIEST KNOWN GRAVES IN BROWN COUNTY ARE FOUND ON THE JENKINS FARM BELONGING TO FOUR ARMY SURVEYORS WHO WERE AMBUSHED NEAR THE FARM, KILLED, AND BURIED ON JENKINS’ PROPERTY. THE FIRST MARKED GRAVE IS THAT OF RICHARDSON JENKINS HIMSELF WHO PASSED IN 1867. AMONG THOSE BURIED HERE ARE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR, WWI, WWII, KOREAN WAR AND THE VIETNAM WAR. THE JENKINS SPRINGS CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, FORMED IN 1964, MAINTAINS THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Richardson Jenkins, one of Brown County's earliest pioneers, settled a farm northeast of Brownwood whose spring took his name and later served the local school and church. The county's earliest known graves here belong to four army surveyors ambushed and killed nearby, and Jenkins himself, who died in 1867, has the first marked grave; veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam also rest in the cemetery.
Why it matters
The burial ground preserves the violent, hopeful beginnings of frontier Brown County, from surveyors killed opening the land to generations who served in the nation's wars.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Richardson Jenkins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Connell Cemetery
Brownwood vicinity, TX
William Connell brought his family to Texas in 1834 and lived through its most formative decades, serving in the Republic of Texas Army, the Texas Rangers, and later the Confederate Army. The cemetery that bears his name—thought to be among the oldest in Brown County—was likely in use before 1861, and when the Connells buried their son in 1866 they set what is believed to be its first headstone. Sixteen families and more than twenty unmarked graves lie here, a quiet record of the pioneers who settled this frontier.
Brown County
Brownwood, TX
Brown County was created in 1856 and organized the next year, named for Capt. Henry S. Brown, who came to Texas in 1824 as an Indian trader and frontier fighter. Brown commanded a company at the 1832 Battle of Velasco and served in the Convention of 1832, one of the steps toward Texas independence. The county seat of Brownwood was named for him and moved to a new site of the same name in 1867.
Zephyr Cemetery
Zephyr, TX
The town of Zephyr took shape in the 1860s on early land grants, gaining a school in the 1870s, churches, businesses, and weekly mail from Brownwood, while this cemetery served the area from the same decade. Among its graves are veterans of six American wars, from the Mexican War through Vietnam, and thirty-three victims of the catastrophic tornado of May 29, 1909, which nearly wiped the town off the map. Now grown past seven acres, the burial ground endures as a monument to the community's resilience.
Greenleaf Fisk
Brownwood, TX
Known as the 'Father of Brownwood,' Greenleaf Fisk (1807–1888) was born in New York to English parents and abandoned ministry studies in 1834 to brave the Texas frontier. He fought at San Jacinto in 1836, held county offices, and served as a senator in the Republic of Texas, and as a government surveyor he mapped and came to love this region. Settling here on a Texas Revolution land grant, he donated 60 acres for the town and 100 for county use, then persuaded neighbors to relocate to the new county seat.