Hickory Hill Cemetery Avinger, Cass County, Texas

This old Historical cemetery is located on the East side of Avinger, just off Hwy 49.

Recently I was in the old Hickory Hill Cemetery in Avinger when a resident of the area came by. He told me some things about the history of the cemetery and town that renewed my interest. So...I did a little research.

According to accounts left by Ellie B. Cloninger, Hickory Hill post office was established at the old Pattillo place on the Jefferson-Clarksville road a few years before the Civil War. Mr. Pattillo was postmaster for many years.

Then Davis Hendrix had it moved to another location and served as postmaster for several years. Then his brother, George Hendrix, served until it was moved to Avinger. Old Hickory Hill boasted a school house, Presbyterian church, store, and graveyard. There were several residences and the road leading through it was much traveled.

While I was there in the cemetery, Mr. Rhodes showed me where the Presbyterian church had stood. He said the first person buried there was the wife of the Presbyterian minister. It was raining when she died and wouldn’t slack off so they could dig a grave. They waited as long as they could, for they had no way to embalm back then. Finally, in desperation, they took out a section of the floor and buried her under the church. Back then, Jefferson was the third largest city in Texas, supplying much of western Texas with necessities. Freight was hauled mostly by ox team.

During the Reconstruction days, many Federal soldiers were stationed at Jefferson and adjacent camps. Three of these soldiers were at Young’s Chapel, near Avinger, nursing a sick comrade, who died. These three men were accused of abusing some southern women in Mt. Pleasant. The Confederates hunted and found them just as they were lowering the dead comrade into the grave. Dr. Avinger, Jake Rhyne, Mr. Little, and another man were assisting in the burial. Without warning, and just at dusk, they began firing at the Yankees. One was killed, one jumped on his horse and escaped, and the other feigned death and fell into the grave upon his dead comrade. The Confederates came up and at close range shot and wounded the one in the grave, but he lay still until they had gone. Then Dr. Avinger and the others aided him in escaping.

A messenger rode to Jefferson and reported that Dr. Avinger and the others with him had done the shooting. They were arrested, taken to Jefferson, and tried. Near the conclusion of evidence, the wounded soldier rushed in with arms uplifted and asked to be heard. He told the facts and said these men were doing a neighborly deed during the shooting. They were freed and the next day concluded the burial. The dead soldier was buried in the same grave over the body of the other corpse. (Mr. Rhodes showed me where the soldiers were buried in the Hickory Hill Cemetery and said that he had tried to get a monument or memorial placed there, but had failed because he had been unable to provide their names.)

During 1876, the East Line & Red River Railroad, a narrow gauge, reached Avinger. Ellie said that when the first train came in about midnight, snorting and puffing pine sparks high in the air, he was at his grandmother’s boarding house near the track, and it was mighty scary. The next year the railroad was built in Daingerfield, and Hughes Springs was born in an old cotton patch which surrounded a sweetgum thicket, sending mineral water from a gum spring At the time, Sardis was quite a village, with stores, a school, Masonic Hall, Presbyterian church, and residences.

Ellie Benton Cloninger was the first child of Moses Lee Roy and Nettie Eubanks Cloninger, born 12 September 1871, 3 miles northeast of Hickory Hill. He married Emma Belle Gillham on 21 November 1897 in Floyd. He was a school teacher for 35 years, teaching in many of the early schools in Cass County His account of parts of this story was told to him by his mother and cousin, A M. Rhyne. Jake Rhyne, mentioned in the article, was married to Lee Cloninger’s sister, Ellie’s aunt.

Blacks Buried In Old Hickory Hill Cemetery

The south half of the Hickory Hill Cemetery was reserved for the blacks, and in it are the marked graves of Gabe Galloway, 7-3-1843---11-10-1927; Mary Galloway (his wife), 11-15-1854-6---15-1936; J. D. Dowell, 3-1-1856---8-24-1923; Charlie White, 1868---1930; Abbie Van, wife of Jim Van, 1814---1916, age 102 years; Aunt Hannah Taylor, 1848 --- 3-25-1918 and Gus Taylor. Mounds of numerous unmarked graves are still visible.

Two miles north of town on the former Robert Allen place is the old Allen cemetery Markers still visible in it are those of Scott Allen (father) 6-10-1853-1-6- 1929; Mildred Allen (mother) 5-9-1855- 1-4-1929; Robbie A. Mitchell, daughter of Robert Allen. Robbie’s son is Dr Roderick Mitchell, a prominent physician in El Paso.

I well remember Robert Allen from my childhood. He was an exceedingly black negro man who truck patched on this place and sold vegetables door to door in Avinger for many years. He always had a sharp looking team that pulled a well-maintained wagon loaded to the brim with neatly arranged vegetables of all kinds.