Erath County
|
Millerville
Cemetery

Historical Marker Text
Henry and Lourilla Osborn Miller, immigrants
from Missouri who settled in Cooke County, Texas, during the 1860s,
bought land in this area about 1876 which they subdivided into small
farm tracts and sold. Settlers who purchased the farms organized a
Church of Christ and in 1877 Rufus and Ann Green Ascue Birdsell donated
one acre of land a short distance north of this site for school
purposes. By 1881 much of the Miller's original land holdings had been
sold and a community by the name of Millerville had been established.
Although local tradition indicates earlier interments here, the first
recorded burial was that of Joseph Beaver, Sr., in 1877. Two acres were
set aside for cemetery purposes in 1881 by Ebaline and Michael Ramfield.
Ramfield descendants in the Giesecke family have continued a family
tradition of land ownership in this area into the 1990s. Birdsell
School, a general store, and the Millerville Church of Christ
constituted the town center in the early 1900s. The cemetery served the
community and contains the burial of many of the area's earliest
settlers and their descendants. Maintained by an association since 1980,
the cemetery represents the last physical reminder of the village of
Millerville.
1995
location: From Stephenville, take US 281 south
about 15 mi. to FM 1824. Follow FM 1824 east about 3 mi.; then take
caliche road south about 3 mi. |