Townsen Cemetery
Adamsville, Lampasas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first Townsen to arrive in Texas was Oliver Hazard Perry Townsen, known as Uncle Perry, in 1854. He was born in Carroll County, Tennessee, on October 20, 1826. A year after his arrival in Texas, his nephew, Lafayette Jasper, followed as well as nephews Columbus Franklin and Julius Randolph Townsen in 1857. The Lampasas River attracted the Townsen family where they utilized the creeks and tributaries to establish a mill on mill branch. The community grew as more settlers arrived in the area and services became available. The first burial at the cemetery was Julius Randolph and Julia Francis Smith Townsen’s first-born son, Robert Lee, at the age of four on October 2, 1875. Subsequent children of Julius and Julia were also buried here: Maggie, age 1, in 1879, and Phillip R., killed by Indians in 1895 at age 13. Uncle Perry lost an arm in a mill accident and was, sadly, killed in another mill accident on January 30, 1891, and was buried in the Townsen Cemetery. The family sold the cemetery land to Lampasas County in 1891 for use as a community cemetery. Of the almost 300 burials at the Townsen Cemetery, many are of the Townsen family and were significant individuals in the Adamsville Community. Jim M. Townsen served in the Texas Legislature and H.C. Townsen was a county commissioner. In addition, there are dozens of military graves as well as a Texas Ranger and several postmasters of the Townsen Community. A cemetery association maintains the cemetery. The historic Townsen Cemetery remains as a testament to the determination and perseverance of early pioneers in Adamsville and Lampasas County. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Oliver Hazard Perry Townsen, 'Uncle Perry,' arrived in Texas in 1854 and settled along the Lampasas River, his family soon followed and built a mill that anchored a growing community. The cemetery began in 1875 with the burial of a four-year-old Townsen child and grew to hold nearly 300 graves, among them legislators, a county commissioner, a Texas Ranger, and dozens of veterans. Uncle Perry himself, who lost an arm in one mill accident and his life in another in 1891, rests here in the ground his family gave to the county.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a densely layered record of one pioneer family and the Adamsville community they helped build, capturing the hardships, from mill accidents to frontier violence, of settling Central Texas.
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Related people
- · Oliver Hazard Perry Townsen
- · Jim M. Townsen
- · H.C. Townsen
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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