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Submitted: 1/16/15 • Approved: 1/16/15 • Last Updated: 3/25/18 • R51021-G0-S3
ROWLETT CREEK CEMETERY
The largest of the thirteen cemeteries in the Plano area, Rowlett Creek Cemetery has more than 1250 gravesites and remains active. Ancestors of President Lyndon Baines Johnson are buried here amidst the gravesites of many early pioneers and their descendants whose legacies remain today. Six Plano elementary schools (Christie, Hedgcoxe, Forman, Rasor, Huffman and Mathews), three cemeteries (Baccus, Collinsworth, and Young), one high school (Clark) a library (Harrington), and a park (Carpenter) bear their names. Some of the other families include the Cothes, Bushes, Dowels, Goughs, Herndons, Huguleys, Meltons, Quisenberrys, Witts, and Yantis. Five members of the Peters Colony are buried here, including Alfred Harrington, the first person interred after he died from pneumonia in 1862. Charlie Gough, the son of a Peters Colonist became the second burial. Ironically, while on furlough from the Civil War, he developed a fever and died.
Another Civil War veteran buried here, Colonel Edward Chambers, served four times in the Texas House of Representatives 1872 - 1886. Interestingly, there are nine tombstones that show deaths before 1862. The oldest, Nancy Bush (November 24, 1856) probably was moved from her family’s burial plot on their nearby farm. That was not an unusual practice in those days.
CHURCH
The history of Rowlett Creek Cemetery is intertwined with that of the earliest Baptist church in Collin County established in 1848. Originally call the Wilson Creek Church of United Baptists, the name changed to Rowlett Creek Baptist Church in 1852. The church became inactive in 1935, but its influence had spread throughout North Texas. Many prominent Baptist churches in Dallas and Fort Worth were started by members of the Rowlett Creek Baptist Church.
George White deeded six acres in 1861 for a meeting house, and Shadrick and Sophronia Jackson donated the adjacent four acres in 1862. The nearby creek (named after pioneer Dr. Daniel Rowlett from Kentucky) was used for baptisms, and the gently rolling terrain with excellent drainage was ideal for burial grounds. The building became famous for revival meetings, some lasting as long as ten days. It also doubled as a schoolhouse and functioned as a quasi-courthouse once a week when members appeared before their peers at church services to respond to accusations such as unexcused absences from three consecutive services, dancing, card playing, fighting, or intoxication. A new building was erected in 1885; the present church, in 1951. It has been used for weddings, funerals, cemetery board and Decoration Day meetings.
The years “1895” and “1920” on the entrance arch refer to the years the church organized Rowlett Creek Cemetery Association and its 25th anniversary. The association still maintains the cemetery grounds and observes the tradition of an annual Decoration Day (first Sunday in May) that began more than one hundred years ago.
LBJ
Three ancestors of President Lyndon B. Johnson are buried in Rowlett Creek Cemetery. John S. Huffman, LBJ’s great great grand-father came to Texas in 1850 and became a successful cattle breeder. LBJ’s great grandfather, Dr. John S. Huffman, arrived in Texas in 1848 as part of the Peters Colony. He married Mary Elizabeth Perrin, the daughter of another Peters Colonist. In addition to practicing medicine he raised cattle and horses. Dr. Huffman served as a surgeon for the Confederacy during the Civil War. He had a family of 10 children, including daughter Ruth, who was LBJ’s grandmother and the third LBJ relative buried in the cemetery. Ruth Ament Huffman married Joseph Baines and later moved to McKinney where LBJ’s mother, Rebekah Baines was born.
Treestones
The most distinctive grave markers in Rowlett Cemetery are carved in the shape of tree stumps or logs. Member of a fraternal benefit society called Woodmen of the World are buried here. These tombstones became known as “Treestones.”
Produced by The Plano Conservancy for Historic Preservation, Inc.: Funded by a grant from the City of Plano, TX.
Photographs courtesy of Plano Public Library, Wells Collection.
Contributed on 1/16/15 by gasirek
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Record #: 51021