Peace Towns Cemetery - aka Towns, Peace Cemetery
Peace Towns Cemetery -
aka Towns, Peace Cemetery
Located
Town of Wier in Williamson County, Texas
Address
2016 WCAD: 200 block N Towns Mill Rd (CR 140A)
1999 WCHC’s Vol I, Pg 259: Per Van Tipton 1975… ”located about 1/2 mile W of Weir on FM 971 (about 200 yds N of FM 971) a few yards off of a small blacktop road in a field of the W.A. Fleisher farm. It is enclosed in an iron fence. On FM 971 for .5 miles, turn R on N. Towns Mill Rd [CR 140A], 300 feet to the cemetery on the right side of the road. The Peace Towns Cemetery, named for the family members buried here, is located about 200 yards N of FM 971, on the E side of N Town Rd. It is at the edge of a field and is enclosed in an iron fence.”
Latitude: 30.67438330
Longitude: -97.59879481
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Peace Towns Cemetery -
aka Towns, Peace Cemetery
Historical narrative by Kay D’Andrea
Next to a cornfield near the intersection of FM 971 and N. Towns Mill Rd near the small town of Weir, Texas, is a small cemetery with four gravestones surrounded by an old, weathered, wrought iron fence. About 1,000 cars drive by this intersection every day. How many have seen this cemetery and wondered, “Who were these people, and why were they buried there, so close to the road and surrounded by acres of cropland?”
Wiley J. Peace was born in 1818. He was a Sergeant, Co. B, 2nd Texas Mounted Volunteers, in the Mexican War, and in July of 1849, the State of Texas granted him 320 acres in Williamson County. In 1850 he married a widow, Lucy Bradley Stubblefield, and established a homestead on the land grant. The 1860 Williamson County Census listed five daughters in his home and noted his occupation as a “stock raiser” with $14,000 in assets—the equivalent of about $550,000 today! At that time, the cattle business was booming in the county, with traditional cattle drives up the Chisholm Trail and cattle and hides shipped to market by rail from Taylor. Daughter Eliza was born in 1858 and died in 1865. Hers was the first burial in the family cemetery.
Wiley served in the Civil War as 1st Lieutenant in the Texas State Troops until becoming Captain, Company H, 12th Texas Cavalry.
The Towns family was among the area’s early settlers. James F. Towns came to Texas from Alabama in 1870. He and his brother Robert operated a gin and blacksmith shop and Towns' Mill. James Towns married Wiley’s and Lucy’s youngest daughter, Eppy Peace. When Wiley died in 1871 and his wife, Lucy, died in 1878, both were buried in the cemetery. After Lucy’s death, the land and homestead were deeded to Eppy and her husband, James Towns.
In the late 19th century, the Townsville (or Towns' Mill) and nearby Weir communities were prospering. Baptist and Presbyterian congregations met at the Prairie Springs School, and an African American church met in a school near Mankins Crossing. In addition to the mill, gin, and blacksmith shop, Townsville also had a post office and a store. However, in 1893 the Georgetown and Granger Railroad came through Weir, bypassing Townsville. By 1903 the Townsville post office closed and moved to Weir. After a 1913 flood destroyed the mill, Townsville ceased to exist as a community.
The fourth and final grave at the cemetery was that of Weaver Towns, the infant son of James and Eppy, who died in December 1892.
For many years the four graves in this small cemetery were overgrown by vegetation, and the stones were tilted and covered with lichen, moss, and dirt. Today, the cemetery has been restored by the Williamson County Historical Commission’s Cemetery Restoration Volunteers, who maintain it as a testament to the importance of our county’s history and the people who lived before us.
The Cemetery Restoration Volunteers maintain over 20 cemeteries. Contact us for more information.