Elizabeth Cemetery
Roanoke, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Elizabeth town, settled between 1860 and 1862, became a trade center with businesses, churches, a school and a Masonic lodge. Family tradition says William Perry Harmonson (1836-1907) donated land for the 1.5-acre community graveyard upon the death of his mother Anna (1796-1867). The town began to decline in 1881 after being bypassed by the Texas and Pacific Railroad. In 1949 former school lands were used to enlarge the cemetery to two acres. Still in use, this burial ground contains almost 400 graves and is all that remains of the once thriving village. (1978)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settled in the early 1860s, the town of Elizabeth grew into a trade center with stores, churches, a school, and a Masonic lodge. Tradition holds that William Perry Harmonson donated the acre-and-a-half graveyard in 1867 upon his mother Anna's death. When the Texas and Pacific Railroad bypassed the town in 1881 it began to fade, and today the cemetery — enlarged in 1949 and holding nearly 400 graves — is all that survives of the once-thriving village.
Why it matters
Elizabeth's fate is the classic story of the railroad age: towns the tracks skipped withered, leaving their cemeteries as the last witnesses to communities that vanished.
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Related people
- · William Perry Harmonson
Themes & tags
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