Plummer Cemetery

The Plummer Cemetery is located on LCR 454 nine miles south of Mexia and seven miles east of Groesbeck.  It was established by L. T. M. Plummer in 1839 after the death of his first wife, Rachel, and their infant son, Wilson, on his land grant in the Andres Varela Survey of Limestone County.  After his death in 1875, Block #17, which contained the cemetery, was inherited by his daughter, Sarah E. Sikes.  When she and her husband sold the property in 1879, they reserved one acre containing the cemetery for “grave yard purposes.”

Luther Thomas Martin Plummer was born in 1811 in Caroline County, Maryland to Philemon Plummer and Sarah Holland.  L. T. M. enlisted in the U. S. Army on January 30, 1830 in Baltimore and served until January, 1832.  He probably served in the upper Mississippi region, possibly in Illinois.  On May 28, 1833, he married Rachel Parker (1818-1839), the daughter of James W. and Martha Duty Parker, in Crawford County, Illinois. 

He came to Texas in 1833 with the Parker group and received a land grant of 3,321 acres out of the Andres Varela Survey in what is now Limestone County on April 1, 1835.  Rachel Parker Plummer, and their son, James Pratt Plummer (1835-1864), were two of the five captives taken during the attack on Fort Parker on May 18, 1836.  Rachel was with child when she was taken captive and gave birth to a son, Luther Thomas Martin Plummer, Jr., who was killed by her Comanche captors.  Rachel was returned to her husband on February 19, 1838.  In 1839, L. T. M. and Rachel lost a third son, Wilson P., in infancy.  Rachel died soon afterwards not knowing that her son, James Pratt, had survived.  He was returned to his Grandfather Parker on January 5, 1843.

L. T. M. married Sarah Elizabeth Lauderdale in 1840. They had seven children: William Edgar, Mary Ann, Edwin, Sara Elizabeth, Rebecca, Jo Anna, and John Wesley. After Sarah's death in 1850, he married Angeline Glenn in 1851. They had eleven children: Philemon Holland, Martha Jane, Daniel, Abraham, Sam Houston, Amanda Ellen, Hinton Smith, Charles Newton, Emma Angeline, Henry and Joshua.

Muster rolls of the Texas Revolution show that L. T. M. Plummer enrolled as a Texas Ranger on November 16, 1835 and served under Captain Eli Seale beginning on January 1, 1836 until March, 1836.  Later he served from April, 1837 until October, 1837.  He died in Limestone County in 1875.  Angeline Plummer died on December 10, 1910.

For many years, “cemetery workings” were conducted.  Family members and friends would spend the day at the cemetery cleaning graves, mowing and tidying up the area.  They would then eat, rest, visit, and decide when they would meet again to “work the cemetery.” 

On May 29, 1954, the Plummer Cemetery Association was formed with John D. Plummer being elected its first president.  In 1955, the cemetery association decided to build a tabernacle and erect a chain link fence around the cemetery’s perimeter.  In that same year, Eugene Sims gave one acre of land to be used as an access and for parking.  In 1956 concrete markers were placed at some graves.  Older family members were consulted as to the location of these graves.  In 1970, an arched sign, which reads “PLUMMER CEMETERY,” was placed at the entrance.  The cemetery received a Texas Historical Marker in 1991 and was designated as a Texas Historic Cemetery in 2011.