Richland Cemetery
Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Richland Cemetery Unmarked graves here may date to 1872, the year the Richland Baptist Church bought the site and the Richland School was established here. The earliest marked grave dates to 1878; two earlier ones, dated 1873 and 1876, are reinterments. Many veterans, including more than a dozen of the Civil War, are buried here. The Richland Cemetery Society maintained the graveyard from 1922 to 1962, when the Richland Cemetery Association formed. Although the school and original church are gone, the site now provides an enduring link to the area's early history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1872, as new farming settlements spread across Northeast Texas, a Baptist congregation and a country school took root at Richland, and the burying ground beside them became the community's enduring anchor. Its graves hold the area's early families and more than a dozen Civil War veterans, with reinterments carrying the record back to the early 1870s. The church and school are long gone, but caretakers have tended the cemetery through societies formed in 1922 and 1962.
Why it matters
Rural cemeteries like this one are often the last physical trace of vanished frontier communities, preserving the names of the ordinary families who settled Texas.
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Themes & tags
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