Shelton-Rankin Cemetery
Hughes Springs, Cass County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the mid-1850s, several settlers from Gaston County, North Carolina, arrived in this area, including the John and Margaret (Morris) Beaty, Benjamin and Sarah (Rankin) Morris, and Spencer and Catherine (Morris) Shelton families. Spencer Shelton bought land here in 1856 and established a family cemetery in 1862, when two sons, Benjamin (age 18) and Bud (age 2), died of measles. The cemetery and surrounding land was sold to James Rankin and William Cloninger in 1872, remaining in the Rankin family until 1950. Descendants organized a Shelton-Rankin Cemetery Association in 1977. Gravestones commemorate military veterans, Woodmen of the World members, and dozens of area pioneers and residents. Historic Texas cemetery – 2007
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the mid-1850s several intermarried families from Gaston County, North Carolina — the Beatys, Morrises, and Sheltons — settled this stretch of Cass County. Spencer Shelton bought land in 1856 and opened a family cemetery in 1862 after two of his sons died of measles. The ground passed to the Rankin family and stayed with them into the 20th century; descendants formed a cemetery association in 1977 to care for the graves of veterans and area pioneers.
Why it matters
The cemetery traces a chain migration of Carolina families into East Texas and the hard toll — childhood epidemics among them — of building a new community on the frontier.
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Related people
- · Spencer Shelton
- · James Rankin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church
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First called Black Cypress Church, Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church was organized in 1861 in the small pre-war community of Sardis, then a cluster of businesses in southwestern Cass County. Members long elected their pastors year by year, beginning with John Massey at the founding, and raised their first church building in the 1870s. Through the decades that followed it remained a central religious and social institution as the surrounding community rose and thinned.
Dennis Cemetery
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