Divide Cemetery
Robert Lee, Coke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1896 the Smith and Chapman families donated 4 acres here for a cemetery and church lot. A sanctuary for all faiths was built on the site the same year to serve the scattered ranches along the divide between the watersheds of the Colorado and North Concho rivers. First to be buried here was Mrs. H.A. (Callie) Chapman (1870-97). The cemetery contains about 100 graves, including those of the earliest settlers of this area of Coke County and veterans of World Wars I and II and Korea. This cemetery is still used by descendants of many pioneers. (1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1896 the Smith and Chapman families set aside four acres on the divide between the Colorado and North Concho watersheds for a cemetery and an all-faiths sanctuary serving the scattered ranches around them. Callie Chapman, buried in 1897, was the first laid to rest here. Its roughly one hundred graves hold the region's earliest settlers and veterans of both World Wars and Korea, and descendants of those pioneers keep it in use today.
Why it matters
A shared, nondenominational burial ground shows how isolated ranching families built the institutions of community across the sparsely settled West Texas range.
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Related people
- · Callie Chapman
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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