HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Fife Cemetery

Brady, McCulloch County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Fife Cemetery Alexander (d. 1896) and Isabella (d. 1898) Mitchell came to this area in 1878 with their children. Alex, a surveyor, farmed and ranched. Daughter Elizabeth Mitchell Bradley, a widow, reared her sons on her parents' homesite and, in 1900, deeded the original one acre for the family cemetery, where her parents' graves bear the earliest dates. Family members and area residents maintained the property, which became a burial ground for the Fife community. A cemetery association organized in 1973, and, in 1981, Bradley heirs deeded two additional acres. The cemetery chronicles early area settlers and their history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Alexander and Isabella Mitchell brought their children to this part of McCulloch County in 1878, where Alex worked as a surveyor while farming and ranching the rolling land. After their deaths their widowed daughter, Elizabeth Mitchell Bradley, raised her sons on the family homesite and in 1900 deeded an acre for a cemetery around her parents' graves, the ground's earliest burials. Maintained by the family and neighbors and enlarged by later Bradley heirs, the burial ground became the resting place of the Fife community.

Why it matters

Fife Cemetery chronicles the surveyor and rancher families who settled the West Texas frontier and the women who held their communities together across generations.

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Related people

  • · Alexander Mitchell
  • · Isabella Mitchell
  • · Elizabeth Mitchell Bradley

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryMemorial

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