Dozier Cemetery
Dozier, Collingsworth County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in northwest Collingsworth County, the Dozier Cemetery was named after the Dozier Creek and a nearby cowboy camp at the head of the creek. This area has been inhabited for thousands of years as evidenced by archeological evidence of prehistoric animals and Native Americans. The first pioneers settled here in the 1860s and soon, with cattle ranching and farming, the area began to grow. Small, rural communities were established with schools and businesses. The Dozier Cemetery was established in 1893, when Mr. Elam (Elums), who lived in the Dozier area, died from tuberculosis. The burial ground was located on the west boundary of the Rocking Chaire Ranche on the R.W. Griswold survey. Soon after, Mr. Wallace was murdered over a grass lease payment and became the second burial in the cemetery. Dozier cemetery is not only the final resting place for people of the Dozier community, but also the neighboring communities of Abra, Enterprise, Lone Mound, Prairie View and Samnorwood. Sitting atop a hill, the gently rolling farm and ranch land surround the cemetery for miles. Tree rows along the east side and northwest corner are the result of 1930s works progress administration (WPA) projects. Grave markers vary from small metal markers to sizable granite engraved markers, and the cemetery includes marked unknown burial plots. Grave covers include gravel, granite and native soil. Funeral services for loved ones often bring people back to their roots in the Dozier area. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the ranch country of northwest Collingsworth County, Dozier Cemetery took its name from Dozier Creek and a cowboy camp at its head. People had lived in this land for thousands of years, and the first Anglo pioneers arrived in the 1860s to farm and run cattle across scattered communities. The graveyard opened in 1893 with the burial of a man named Elam who died of tuberculosis, followed soon by a rancher murdered over a grass-lease dispute, and it later gathered the dead of half a dozen surrounding settlements amid tree rows planted by 1930s WPA crews.
Why it matters
A hilltop cemetery on the rolling Rocking Chair Ranche lands preserves the memory of the cowboy-and-farmer communities that settled the Texas Panhandle frontier.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Mobeetie Trail
Hedley, TX
The Old Mobeetie Trail followed a path far older than any map—worn over centuries by migrating bison and the Native hunters who followed them across the Texas Panhandle. In the 1870s it carried the first dugout-dwelling settlers, buffalo hunters supplying the hide trade, and soldiers to Fort Elliott, while the frontier town of Mobeetie briefly served as county seat for 28 counties. As the Rath and later the Jones and Plummer trails, it became a great artery for longhorn drives to northern railheads before farming 'nesters' finally settled the land along it.
Custer on the Sweetwater
Wheeler, TX
The banks of Sweetwater Creek lay in the heart of the Comancheria, where Plains peoples wintered in country rich with buffalo. In the winter campaign of 1868-69, George Armstrong Custer led the 7th Cavalry and Kansas volunteers to recover two Anglo women captured from Kansas settlements. Rather than open fire on a large Cheyenne village and risk the captives' lives, Custer detained several chiefs, opened tense negotiations with the Cheyenne leadership, and by ultimatum won the women's release in March 1869.
Battle of North Fork of Red River
Lefors, TX
On September 29, 1872, Colonel Ranald MacKenzie's cavalry and infantry surprised a 262-tepee Comanche village here on the North Fork of the Red River, whose people had refused to be confined to reservations. The troops seized the village in about half an hour, though Chief Mow-Way's warriors fought fiercely from the creek banks — and that night the Comanches slipped back and recaptured their horse herd. The lesson MacKenzie drew shaped his decisive 1874 campaign against the Southern Plains tribes.
Indian Battlefield
Pampa, TX
On November 8, 1874, at the height of the Red River War on the Texas Panhandle, Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin led two companies of U.S. troops in an attack on a large Native encampment near this spot, freeing two young white girls held captive. The clash was one of many in the Army's campaign to force the Southern Plains nations onto reservations. Baldwin's actions here later earned him lasting recognition.