| Marker Text |
Settlers in this area established the Ephesus community and used this site as a burial ground. Also known as Millican Cemetery, the Milligan Cemetery may have been established as early as 1840. The first marked grave, however, dates to 1869 and is that of infant Ella Wall. An earlier gravestone for a female with the name Sterlin (or Sterling) on the marker existed until vandals destroyed it in the late 20th century. Located on the John A. Goolsby Survey, the cemetery is on land once owned by George Washington Marshall, who gave it to his daughter Georga (Marshall) Goolsby. Walter Jackson Patton later purchased the site and donated the burial ground and adjacent road to the community. The cemetery’s site on a rocky hill covered in red clay required much labor from the community to maintain the burial plots, which for many years were mounded. Descendants and friends of those buried here now hold regular work days to care for the cemetery. Today, Milligan Cemetery is an important landmark, the final resting place of early settlers, military veterans and generations of area residents. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2005 |
