Cemetery in the middle of a major Texas highway

In the 1890’s, the Riggs family homestead was established in Cleveland, Texas, after relocating numerous times due to new opportunities and displacement by occurrences such as the Revolutionary War, and in later years, the Civil War, following their initial travel from England to Massachusetts in the 1600s.

Riggs Cemetery, located on US 59 south of Cleveland, is one of the only family cemeteries of its kind. It is even mentioned in Texas historian Bob Bowman’s book, “The Best of East Texas,” because of its unique location in between two sections of highway and its longevity.

Bowman refers to the cemetery as “The Best Triumph over Bureaucracy,” and says, “When the Texas Highway Department announced its plans in Austin to widen U.S. Highway 59 to four lanes south of Cleveland, a small family cemetery stood in the way. 

Engineers tried until they were blue in the face to relocate the 14 graves, but the descendants of the Riggs family were firm: leave the graves alone. 

So there it remains – a cemetery sitting in the middle of the highway right-of-way, possibly the only such graveyard in Texas.”

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