Atwell Cemetery
Cross Plains, Callahan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Before Callahan County organized, settlers built homes in this area. Many more families came after the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1880. A town was officially named in 1898 to honor U.S. District Attorney William Hawley Atwell. For decades, residents used cemeteries at Cottonwood, Sabanno, Scranton and Zion Hill. Gideon and Frances Howell deeded land for a community burial ground to Atwell’s Baptist, Christian and Methodist churches in 1917. Several military headstones are here, including two young men killed in France during World War I. The community had stores, a cotton gin, a school and churches at its peak, but declined after World War II. The Atwell Cemetery Association formed in 1970 to maintain the burial ground. Historic Texas cemetery – 2007
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlers reached this corner of Callahan County even before it organized, and many more arrived after the Texas and Pacific Railroad came through in 1880. The town was named Atwell in 1898 for a U.S. district attorney, and in 1917 the Howells deeded land for a shared burial ground to the community's Baptist, Christian, and Methodist churches. Among the graves are military headstones, including two young men killed in France during World War I — quiet markers of a farm town that peaked with stores, a gin, and a school before fading after World War II.
Why it matters
A rural cemetery like Atwell preserves the whole life of a vanished farming community, right down to the local sons who died in the trenches of the First World War.
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Related people
- · William Hawley Atwell
Related events
- · World War I
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Scranton Cemetery
Cisco, TX
Settled in the 1870s, Scranton grew into a full community with a post office, stores, cotton gin, blacksmith, school, and academy. In 1896 Joseph Jackson Ray and his wife Sarah donated land for a Baptist church and graveyard, though the first burial — an infant of the Sprawls family — had already taken place that July. A cemetery association formed in 1968, and the nearby community center still hosts services and an annual homecoming. Veterans from the Civil War onward lie here alongside the settlement's pioneers, educators, and officials.
Site of Cottonwood Springs
Cottonwood, TX
After the U.S. Army's campaigns of 1874 broke the power of the Plains tribes, settlers rushed into this corner of Callahan County, drawn by game, water, and good ranching and farming land. Cottonwood Springs, founded in 1875 at the head of Green Briar Creek, quickly grew into a trading center with stores, two churches, and a school—though it saw its share of gunfights. When a post office opened in 1883, the name was trimmed simply to Cottonwood.
Old Cottonwood Cemetery
Callahan County, TX
Old Cottonwood Cemetery grew alongside a Callahan County community founded on land granted to George Washington Glasscock, Sr. for his service to the Republic of Texas. Homesteaders arrived in the 1870s to good farming country, and the town of Cottonwood soon boasted businesses, churches, an academy, and two newspapers. The graveyard — its earliest known burials infants from 1877 — holds veterans dating to the Texas War for Independence and even two friends who killed each other in a frontier gunfight and share a common grave.
Liberty Cemetery
Cisco, TX
The cemetery preserves the memory of Liberty Hill, a once-thriving community with a school, two churches, stores, a blacksmith, and a cotton gin. Samuel B. Webb and his wife Amanda deeded the burial ground in 1899, and its earliest graves hold their daughter-in-law Viola, who died in childbirth in 1907, and her infant son. Confederate soldiers rest here alongside veterans of both World Wars and the families who settled this part of Eastland County.