Wilkinson Family Cemetery
Grandview, Johnson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Henry and Sarah Ann (Weldon) Wilkinson and their seven children left their former home in Mississippi in November 1866 to travel to Texas. Their journey in two ox-drawn wagons lasted 62 days, and they settled near this site in January 1867. The family rented land upon their arrival, and in 1869 purchased 762 acres on which they established a farm. They built a small log home and became respected leaders in their small rural community, initially named Hugh in honor of a Wilkinson grandson. The community's name later was changed to Antioch. Henry Wilkinson died on May 26, 1879, as a result of a farming accident. He was buried near his home in a grove of trees which became known as the Wilkinson Family Cemetery. His wife Sarah Ann (d. 1901) and sons John Q. A. (d. 1879) and Virgil A. (d. 1881) also were buried in the family graveyard, as were a number of other relatives and descendants. The land surrounding the cemetery remained in the Wilkinson family until 1938. The half-acre site is maintained by Wilkinson descendants, many of whom still reside in this area of Johnson County. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In November 1866 Henry and Sarah Ann Wilkinson set out from Mississippi with their seven children, enduring a 62-day journey by two ox-drawn wagons before settling here in January 1867. They rented land at first, then bought 762 acres in 1869 to build a farm and a small log home, becoming leaders of a rural community first called Hugh and later Antioch. When Henry died in an 1879 farming accident he was buried in a grove near his home, beginning the family cemetery still tended by his descendants.
Why it matters
The Wilkinsons' overland trek and hard-won farm capture the postwar migration of Southern families into Texas that built its rural communities one homestead at a time.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Henry Wilkinson
- · Sarah Ann (Weldon) Wilkinson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Grandview Cemetery and Original Grand View Town Site
Grandview, TX
Grand View reportedly took its name in 1854 when John Whitmire exclaimed "What a Grand View!", and settler F. L. Kirtley soon donated land for a Baptist church and cemetery. The town grew with general stores, a blacksmith, and Johnson County's first Masonic lodge, though its founder James Scurlock died during the Civil War. The cemetery holds pioneers, the mysterious murdered traveler remembered only as "Annie," and an African American section including early settlers Scott and Elmira Matlock. When the railroad passed a mile away in 1881, the town migrated to the tracks and the cemetery gradually reclaimed the original site.
Duke Cemetery
Alvarado, TX
Dr. John Duke and his wife Martha moved to Johnson County in 1854 and established a farm in what became the Willow Springs Community. When their ten-year-old daughter Zilla died in 1870 they buried her on the family farm, and she was soon joined by siblings and a young relative. In 1879 Dr. Duke deeded the burial ground to the community, and it became the resting place of Willow Springs ranchers, farmers, teachers, merchants, ministers and soldiers.
Site of Norman Springs & Norman Grove
Alvarado, TX
For decades these springs on the road from Fort Worth to Waco drew both people and history to a single patch of Johnson County prairie. Caddo families were camped here when the Balch family arrived to claim Peters Colony land around 1851, and the two lived as peaceable neighbors before settlers' growing numbers pushed the Caddo toward Oklahoma by 1860. Later owner Lafayette Norman kept the spring open to weary travelers, giving it the name Norman Springs, until the great droughts of the 20th century dried it to a muddy trace marked only by a willow.
Myers Cemetery
Alvarado, TX
Samuel Houston Myers brought his wife Patsy and six children to Texas in 1851, establishing a family farm; over the following years he outlived three wives and buried several kin on the land. The cemetery's first recorded burial came in 1873 with his granddaughter Mary, and early graves include Myers himself, a traveler who drowned in Quil Miller Creek, and a formerly enslaved woman remembered as "Aunt Rachel." A darker chapter unfolded in 1880, when young Sam Houston Myers, Jr. was hanged for a murder his brother-in-law later confessed to.