Millerville Cemetery
Stephenville vicinity, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Henry and Lourilla Osborn Miller, immigrants from Missouri who settled in Cooke County, Texas, during the 1860s, bought land in this area about 1876 which they subdivided into small farm tracts and sold. Settlers who purchased the farms organized a Church of Christ and in 1877 Rufus and Ann Green Ascue Birdsell donated one acre of land a short distance north of this site for school purposes. By 1881 much of the Miller's original land holdings had been sold and a community by the name of Millerville had been established. Although local tradition indicates earlier interments here, the first recorded burial was that of Joseph Beaver, Sr., in 1877. Two acres were set aside for cemetery purposes in 1881 by Ebaline and Michael Ramfield. Ramfield descendants in the Giesecke family have continued a family tradition of land ownership in this area into the 1990s. Birdsell School, a general store, and the Millerville Church of Christ constituted the town center in the early 1900s. The cemetery served the community and contains the burial of many of the area's earliest settlers and their descendants. Maintained by an association since 1980, the cemetery represents the last physical reminder of the village of Millerville. (1995)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Henry and Lourilla Miller, Missouri immigrants who came to Texas in the 1860s, bought land here about 1876 and sold it off as small farms, seeding the community of Millerville. Settlers organized a Church of Christ and a school, and by the early 1900s a store, church, and Birdsell School formed the town's heart. The village is gone now, and this cemetery—with its earliest recorded burial in 1877—is its last physical trace.
Why it matters
Millerville Cemetery preserves the memory of a vanished farm community, a quiet monument to the settlers who broke the land and the towns that faded when the world moved on.
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Related people
- · Henry Miller
- · Lourilla Osborn Miller
Themes & tags
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