John Robin Heard
Linden, Cass County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1794-1866) A descendant of settlers who came to America in 1720 from County Tyrone, Ireland, John Robin Heard was born in Georgia and moved to Texas in 1853. He founded the nearby town of Cussetta and acquired large landholdings in this area. In 1861 he donated property for this cemetery. His home stood near this site until the 1940s. Heard's first wife was Martha Hopkins. After her death, he married her sister, Mary Hopkins. From the two marriages, he had 12 children.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Georgia in 1794 to a family that had emigrated from County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1720, John Robin Heard came to Texas in 1853 and founded the nearby town of Cussetta, amassing large landholdings. In 1861 he donated the ground for this cemetery, and his home stood nearby into the 1940s. Twice married to sisters Martha and Mary Hopkins, Heard fathered twelve children — a sprawling family typical of the antebellum settlers who anchored northeast Texas communities.
Why it matters
Heard's life reflects the wave of Deep South planters and settlers who carried families, land hunger, and community-building west into Texas in the decades before the Civil War.
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Related people
- · John Robin Heard
- · Martha Hopkins
- · Mary Hopkins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John Robin Heard Cemetery
Douglassville, TX
John Robin Heard, who came to Texas in 1853 and founded the nearby town of Cussetta, donated the one-acre ground for this family cemetery, where the first burial in 1861 was his infant grandson Cornelius Floyd. Its twenty-three graves include Heard himself and his second wife, Mary Hopkins Heard, while a fence was later provided by another grandson, W.Q. Henderson. Descendants organized a cemetery association and perpetual-care trust in 1974 to preserve the family plot.
Floyds' Hill Church - Cemetery
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In 1854 Killis S. Floyd donated four acres for a Missionary Baptist congregation, and the Floyds' Hill Church was organized that December with fifteen charter members. Services first met in a pioneer family's home, then in a log church of 1855 and a frame building raised about 1858 with the help of enslaved labor; Black members worshiped here until Floyd gave land for a separate church. The adjoining cemetery, with some 200 known graves, holds the settlers who came from Alabama and Georgia in the 1850s, and though regular services ended in 1926, descendants still gather each year.
Hickory Grove Cemetery
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In 1872 the Rev. James A. Steger, a Civil War veteran, deeded this ground to trustees of the Hickory Grove Methodist Church for use as a community burial place, though he may have buried family here even earlier. A Methodist sanctuary stood nearby, and a later building served for funerals and school classes. The congregation eventually disbanded, but the cemetery — resting place of several pioneer families — still marks where the community first took root.
Trammel's Trace
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