Buffalo-Ebony Cemetery
Goldthwaite, Mills County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to oral tradition, this cemetery originated when two sheep herders camping in the area died and were buried here. The oldest marked grave, that of area resident William R. Yankee, dates to 1882. Frank and Mary Crowder bought this land in 1889 and Mary later donated the burial site for a community cemetery for Buffalo/Ebony residents. Area pioneers and veterans are among those buried in the cemetery. During the 1940s, the graves of three Reynolds family members were moved here after the land containing their original grave sites became part of Camp Bowie.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Local tradition holds that this burial ground began when two sheep herders died while camping here, though its oldest marked grave dates to 1882. After Frank and Mary Crowder bought the land in 1889, Mary later gave part of it for a community cemetery serving the Buffalo and Ebony neighborhoods. Pioneers and veterans rest here, joined in the 1940s by three members of the Reynolds family reburied when their original graves fell within a new military camp.
Why it matters
A rural cemetery like this preserves the names and stories of the ordinary settlers who built central Texas, ground that would otherwise be lost from the historical record.
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Related people
- · William R. Yankee
- · Frank Crowder
- · Mary Crowder
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rural Communities of Western Mills County
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Drawn by rich soil and reliable water, pioneers settled western Mills County in the 1870s and 1880s, founding the communities of Regency, Ebony, and Ridge, each with churches, schools, and a post office. During World War II the U.S. government bought regional land to create Camp Bowie, and many residents who left never returned. Today only faint traces of these once-thriving towns remain.
Bowser Community
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Around 1858 the Abel Bowser family settled at a bend of the Colorado River, and the village of Bowser Bend grew up with a school, cemetery, cotton gin, and store by the late 1880s. Recurring floods pushed the town to relocate after Paul Varga donated higher land for a chapel and cemetery in 1890, but the loss of its post office, gin, and school sent Bowser into decline by the 1940s.
Elkins Cemetery
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This burial ground began in 1876, the year pioneer minister Noah T. Byars helped found Live Oak Baptist Church and Civil War veteran Silas H. Wood settled his family here from Mississippi. Wood deeded the graveyard to the church in 1884, and it grew alongside a community known first as Gholson and later Elkins. Interments paused during World War II when Camp Bowie displaced the town, then resumed after the camp closed in 1947.
Jackson Massacre
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