Johnsville Cemetery
Stephenville, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The community of Johnsville, settled before 1860, was named for John Z. Martin when he was appointed first postmaster in 1901. Once a thriving village on the main road from Stephenville to Glen Rose, Johnsville consisted of general stores, a cotton gin, blacksmith shop, fraternal lodges, a school, a church, and numerous homes. The oldest graves in Johnsville Cemetery are those of the two infant children of Curtis and Annie (Cox) Burks and of W. B. and Mary (Smith) Cox. The children are believed to have died in 1907 and 1910. In 1910 Edward and Martha (Shaw) Cox sold 1.5 acres of land adjoining the Christian church for use as a cemetery. The church was then almost fifteen years old. Pioneers from all walks of life settled in the area; teachers, Masons, blacksmiths, merchants, soldiers, preachers, farmers, mothers, fathers, children, and many others created the community known as Johnsville. Many of them and their descendants were interred here in the Johnsville Cemetery. In 1948 the Johnsville School was consolidated with schools in Pony Creek and Chalk Mountain to form the Three Way School District. By 1997, only the Church of Christ (formerly called the Christian Church) and the cemetery remained as a record of the area's pioneer settlement. The Johnsville Cemetery continues to serve the area. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settled before 1860 on the main road from Stephenville to Glen Rose, the community of Johnsville took its name from John Z. Martin, its first postmaster in 1901. In its prime it had general stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith, lodges, a school, and a church, and its cemetery — formally established in 1910 on land near the Christian church — holds pioneers of every trade. School consolidation in 1948 and the slow drift of population left the church and cemetery as the last records of the town.
Why it matters
Johnsville's cemetery preserves the memory of a self-sufficient rural crossroads community, a settlement pattern that once covered the American countryside before consolidation emptied it.
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Related people
- · John Z. Martin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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