First Cemetery in Potter County
Amarillo, Potter County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On the old _X (LX), first ranch in Potter County, established in 1877 by W.H. Bates and D.T. Beals, Boston (Mass.) industrialists. The earliest burials occurred after the LX was sold, 1884, to American Pastoral Land and Cattle Company, a British syndicate. First grave was dug for the LX bookkeeper's wife, Mrs. James Wyness, who died in Tascosa on June 15, 1887; six weeks later the newborn son who survived was laid at her side. The infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Charley Mott died in 1888. Second adult buried here was P.O. ("Bunch") McCrary killed 1890 when his horse fell on him while he was roping a yearling. In 1893 James Bailey, hauling grain from Amarillo, bogged in quicksand in the Canadian; in getting his wagon out, he suffered exposure that brought on a fatal case of pneumonia. A 1902 grave was for James Bell, found dead in a corral with a bridle in his hand. When the syndicate was liquidated, this portion of the ranch was purchased by an early cattleman, R.B. Masterson. John Arnot, one of the original employees of the syndicate, and later a U.S. government cattle brands inspector, maintained the cemetery until 1945. It is now cared for by Mrs. Mary Masterson Fain, a descendant of third owner of the old ranch land. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This cemetery sits on the old LX Ranch, the first ranch in Potter County, founded in 1877 by two Boston industrialists and later sold to a British cattle syndicate. Its graves read like a chronicle of the open range: a bookkeeper's wife who died in Tascosa in 1887, ranch children, and cowboys killed by falling horses, quicksand, and hard weather. After the syndicate was liquidated, a former employee tended the plots for decades until a descendant of the ranch took up the care.
Why it matters
Every headstone here records the human cost and international money behind the great cattle era that opened the Texas Panhandle.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the late 1870s, the Texas Panhandle was changing faster than almost anywhere in the country. The Red River War of 1874–75 had forced the Southern Plains nations onto reservations, and the great buffalo herds had been hunted nearly to nothing. Grassland that had been Comanche and Kiowa country was opened to cattle, and ranchers moved in to claim it.
The LX, founded in 1877, was the first ranch in Potter County. Its founders, W.H. Bates and D.T. Beals, were Boston industrialists, and that detail matters. The Panhandle cattle boom was paid for with money from far away. In 1884 the LX was sold to the American Pastoral Land and Cattle Company, a British syndicate. In the 1880s, investors in Britain poured large sums into Western ranching in the hope of big profits from beef.
The boom was hard on the people who did the work. Winters could be brutal, rivers flooded and shifted, and a cowboy's workday was full of chances to get badly hurt. Tascosa, on the Canadian River, was the rough little town where many ranch people did their business. Amarillo was founded in the late 1880s as the railroad arrived and soon became the region's center of trade.
People & events
The first grave here was dug for a woman, not a cowboy. Mrs. James Wyness, wife of the LX bookkeeper, died in Tascosa in June 1887. Her newborn son survived her, but only for about six weeks, and then he was buried beside her. That one pair of graves says a lot about how dangerous childbirth was on the frontier, far from doctors and hospitals.
Other graves followed, and each one is a small story of ranch life. The infant son of Charley and Mrs. Mott died in 1888. P.O. McCrary, known as Bunch, was killed in 1890 when his horse fell on him as he roped a yearling, which was ordinary cowboy work that went wrong in a moment. In 1893 James Bailey was hauling grain from Amarillo when his wagon bogged down in quicksand in the Canadian River. Struggling to free it left him badly exposed to the cold, and he died of pneumonia. In 1902 James Bell was found dead in a corral with a bridle still in his hand. The marker records only that detail, and his story ends there.
The land kept changing hands. When the British syndicate was liquidated, this part of the old ranch went to cattleman R.B. Masterson. John Arnot, one of the syndicate's first employees and later a U.S. government cattle brands inspector, looked after the cemetery until 1945. After that the job passed to Mary Masterson Fain, a descendant of the family that had owned the ranch land. Several generations quietly made sure these few graves were not forgotten.
Its place in the American story
The cattle era is one of America's best-loved stories. Small cemeteries like this one show what it cost. The open range was not only long trail drives and famous brands. It was also bookkeepers' wives who died far from help, babies who never grew up, and working cowboys killed by ordinary accidents.
The cemetery also shows how the West was paid for. Boston industrialists founded the ranch and a British syndicate later bought it. The Panhandle was settled partly by people on horseback and partly by investors in offices hundreds or thousands of miles away. The American frontier belonged to a worldwide economy, and money from London and New England decided what happened on grass along the Canadian River.
Finally, the site is a lesson in how local memory survives. None of the people buried here are famous. They are remembered because ranch hands, inspectors, and descendants kept the ground cared for over the decades, and then a marker put their names on record.
If you visit
You're on the edge of Amarillo, but the setting belongs to the older ranch country of the Canadian River breaks. The Panhandle plains run flat and wide here and then fall away into rougher ground near the river. Look around and imagine how isolated a ranch headquarters would have felt in the 1880s.
A small frontier cemetery calls for a quiet, respectful visit. Read the marker slowly and match the names with the lives it describes: the young mother and her baby, the cowboy and his yearling, the teamster caught in the quicksand, the man with the bridle in his hand. Please treat the graves and any private land nearby with care.
This stop works well on a Panhandle ranching and frontier trip. You can pair it with Amarillo's museums and the country along the Canadian, including the story of Tascosa, the old cowtown this cemetery's first burial is tied to.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · W.H. Bates
- · D.T. Beals
- · R.B. Masterson
- · John Arnot
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Canadian River
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Great Spanish Road_First Ranch in Potter County_First Store in Potter County
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The United States Topographical Engineers in the High Plains of Texas
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Established in 1877 by Colorado merchants W. H. Bates and D. T. Beals, the LX was one of the great open-range cattle operations of the Texas Panhandle, spreading across roughly 1,000 square miles between present-day Dumas and Amarillo. LX cattle were trailed north to Dodge City and on to the newly opened ranges of Montana and Wyoming as the buffalo vanished. A British firm bought the ranch in 1884, and when Potter County organized in 1887, the 38 LX cowboys voted to make Amarillo the county seat. Among its hands was Charles Siringo, later famous as a cowboy author and detective.