Crosby Cemetery
Mason vicinity, Mason County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first burial ground for the citizens of Mason and Koocksville, this cemetery traces its history to the 1850s. The oldest documented burial is that of Kate Lemburg, who died in 1856. Also interred here is Mason County's first sheriff, Thomas Milligan (1810-1860). The Crosby family purchased the property surrounding the cemetery in 1866, and it has been known as Crosby cemetery since that time. Those buried in the cemetery include members of the Crosby and other pioneer families. It stands as a reflection of the area's heritage. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground served the earliest citizens of Mason and nearby Koocksville, with its oldest recorded grave dating to 1856. Among those laid to rest here is the county's first sheriff, Thomas Milligan. The Crosby family bought the surrounding land in 1866, giving the cemetery the name it has carried ever since.
Why it matters
Pioneer cemeteries preserve the names and lineages of the families who first settled a frontier county, anchoring its collective memory.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1850s, the Texas Hill Country around what would become Mason was true frontier. The U.S. Army had established Fort Mason in the area to guard settlers, and small communities began to take root nearby, among them Mason and the neighboring settlement of Koocksville.
Many settlers in this part of Texas, including large numbers of German immigrants, were building farms and homes in rugged country far from established towns. Life was hard, medical care was scarce, and death came often, especially to the very young.
A community's first cemetery is one of its earliest institutions. Setting aside ground for the dead meant that people had decided to stay. Mason County itself was organized in the late 1850s, and this cemetery grew up alongside it.
People & events
The oldest documented burial here is that of Kate Lemburg, who died in 1856. Her grave marks the very beginning of the cemetery's story and reminds us that behind every early settlement were families dealing with loss in a new and unfamiliar land.
Also resting here is Thomas Milligan, Mason County's first sheriff, who lived from 1810 to 1860. As the county's first lawman, he served at a time when the county and its institutions were brand new. He was buried in the community he had helped to govern.
In 1866 the Crosby family bought the land around the cemetery, and the burial ground has carried their name ever since. Members of the Crosby family and other pioneer families lie here together, their graves forming a kind of family tree for the early county.
Its place in the American story
Pioneer cemeteries like this one are some of the most personal records of American settlement. Official documents tell us when counties were formed and forts were built, but graves tell us who actually lived, worked and died on the frontier.
The story here spans a turning point for the nation. Burials began in the 1850s, the Civil War years followed, and the Crosby family bought the land just after the war ended. Through all of it, local families kept tending this ground.
Across the country, small cemeteries like Crosby Cemetery preserve names that appear nowhere else. They are anchors of local memory, and together they form part of the larger story of how ordinary people built communities in the West.
If you visit
The cemetery is in the Mason vicinity, in the scenic Texas Hill Country. It is a quiet, reflective place. Walk gently, look for the oldest stones, and notice the family names that repeat across the rows.
This is a historic burial ground, so please treat it with respect. Stay on paths where they exist, do not disturb the graves or markers, and remember that families may still visit here.
Mason is a good base for exploring the Hill Country's history. Pair this stop with a visit to the site of Fort Mason and a stroll through town to round out the story of how this frontier county began.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Thomas Milligan
- · Kate Lemburg
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Two Sheriffs of Mason County
Mason, TX
This marker remembers two Mason County lawmen from the same family, separated by nearly seventy years. Kentucky-born Thomas Milligan ran a stage station and supplied beef to Fort Mason before becoming the county's first elected sheriff in 1858; two years later he was killed near his home. His grandson, Allen Thomas Murray, took up the same office in 1924 and likewise died in the line of duty, shot by a bootlegger in 1929.
Taylor-Carter House
Mason, TX
This sandstone house grew in stages, its first rock rooms built around 1870 and a two-story cut-stone section added in 1875 for Mrs. E. B. Taylor, an Irish immigrant and prominent rancher. The Carter family owned it for nearly a century, adding a frame wing in 1928. Symmetrically arranged around a central hall with arched windows and corbelled chimneys, it carries Italianate touches unusual on the Hill Country ranching frontier.
Koocksville
Mason vicinity, TX
Settlers began arriving in this Mason County locality in the 1850s, but the community took its name from William Koock, a German immigrant who built a one-room log store here in 1867. Koock's enterprise grew into a two-story rock building that served as the headquarters for area cattle and sheep ranchers, who bought supplies, took credit, and even deposited their gold for safekeeping there, while dances filled its second floor. Koocksville had one of the county's earliest schools and a grist mill and cotton gin, but after Koock died in a riding accident in 1890 the store closed and the town declined into a scattering of stone ruins.
Whorlie Well
Mason, TX
This well takes its name from John Whorlie, a deputy sheriff caught up in the 1875 "Hoodoo War," a bloody feud sparked by cattle rustling in Mason County. After a prisoner in his charge was seized by a lynch mob, Whorlie was killed and scalped while working here, reportedly by Scott Cooley, a friend of the lynched man. No one was ever convicted in the vendetta, though order was said to return to the county after 1876.