City of Levelland Cemetery
Levelland, Hockley County, Texas
Marker Inscription
City of Levelland Cemetery Established ca. 1924 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The City of Levelland Cemetery was established about 1924, in the early years of this Hockley County town on the South Plains of West Texas. It has served the community's families ever since and was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2010.
Why it matters
Early community cemeteries like this one mark the permanence of settlement on the West Texas plains, where burying the dead close to home signaled a town's determination to endure.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
City of Levelland
Levelland, TX
Surveyed and platted in 1912 as "Hockley City" by cereal magnate C. W. Post, this barren High Plains townsite won the race for county seat in 1921 — the first meeting of county officers reportedly held inside a Cadillac. Early Levelland made do with a 16-by-32-foot temporary courthouse, a well, and a community black-eyed pea patch, before the railroad arrived in 1925 and oil was discovered nearby in 1937.
Fifth Street Missionary Baptist Church
Levelland, TX
In 1921, thirteen residents led by a Rev. Curry organized the first church in the newly founded town of Hockley City—today's Levelland—originally called First Missionary Baptist Church. Many of the town's early pioneers and leaders were members, and they completed a building here in 1926. Its first ordained minister, B.E. Gunn, doubled as the town's first postmaster, and the congregation long sustained missions, a food pantry, and community charity.
Hockley County
Levelland, TX
Hockley County was created in 1876 and organized in 1921, its seat at Levelland—known as Hockley City until 1912. It bears the name of George W. Hockley, who commanded the artillery at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto and served as Secretary of War for the Republic of Texas. The marker ties the sweep of the South Plains to the founding generation of Texas independence.
The Spade Ranch
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Isaac Ellwood, who made a fortune as one of the inventors and manufacturers of barbed wire, bought this vast South Plains range in 1889 from the veteran cattlemen D.H. and J.W. Snyder. Branded with the "Spade," the ranch was first stocked with calves from Ellwood's southern Renderbrook Spring holdings and eventually stretched fifty-four miles across several Panhandle counties before farmland sales moved its headquarters in the 1920s. Ellwood's descendants still own and operate it today.