Englewood Cemetery
Slaton, Lubbock County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Representing the Santa Fe Railroad, W.B. Storey, Jr. bought the future townsite of Slaton on April 15, 1911. The railroad's plans included a roundhouse, switch lines, depot and Harvey House, making Slaton a center for area rail transport. Rail employees and others quickly populated the city, which incorporated in October 1912. By that time, residents had established this cemetery with the burial of infant J.W. Ohrion earlier in the year. Among the thousands of graves here are several unmarked burials in a potter's field and veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Representing the Santa Fe Railroad, W.B. Storey, Jr. bought the future townsite of Slaton on April 15, 1911, with plans for a roundhouse, switch lines, depot, and Harvey House that would make it a hub of West Texas rail traffic. Rail workers and settlers filled the town so quickly that it incorporated in 1912, the same year residents opened this cemetery with the burial of an infant. Among its thousands of graves are unmarked burials in a potter's field and veterans of wars dating to the Civil War.
Why it matters
Englewood Cemetery reflects how the Santa Fe Railroad conjured a whole town โ and its resting place โ out of the open plains in a single year, a pattern that built much of West Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- ยท W.B. Storey, Jr.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Slaton
Slaton, TX
Slaton owes its very existence to the Santa Fe Railroad. When the Pecos and Northern Texas branch reached the South Plains in 1911, banker O. L. Slaton โ who had helped secure the right-of-way โ lent his name to the brand-new townsite, which opened for business only a month after its first lots sold. As a railroad division point complete with a Harvey House, roundhouse, and machine shops, Slaton boomed almost overnight into a farming and ranching hub.
Spanish Explorers' Route
Wilson, TX
This ancient road across the Llano Estacado was first traced by Native peoples and later followed by Spaniards, U.S. Army units, and cattle drovers, running from Gholson Spring past Tahoka Lake toward Big Spring and the North Concho. In the 17th century it carried Spanish visitors including Father Salas, who came from New Mexico in 1629 at the pleas of the Jumano Indians, and treasure- and pearl-seeking expeditions in 1650 and 1654. The trail knit together centuries of movement across the high plains.
Mackenzie Scout Trail
Lubbock, TX
In the early 1870s the U.S. Army cut this scouting route across the West Texas plains, part of the campaigns that opened the Llano Estacado to outside travel. After the soldiers came the buffalo hunters of the late 1870s, and then the cattlemen who drove herds across the open range until barbed wire fenced it in. The granite block itself carries a poignant twist: it was taken from the graveyard wall of a South Carolina woman, Nancy Anderson, and set here by her descendants in the D.A.R.
Lorenzo
Lorenzo, TX
Lorenzo sprang to life on April 10, 1911, the day the Crosbyton-South Plains Railway ran its first train to the spot. It took its name from Lorenzo Dow, an employee of the livestock company that promoted the townsite and, in 1914, urged local farmers to plant cotton. Incorporated in 1924, the little High Plains town grew into a cotton-farming center with its own churches, school, and businesses.