Funeral Business in Clarendon
Clarendon, Donley County, Texas
Marker Inscription
For more than a century, this site has been the location of a funeral home, a vital community business serving a widespread area of the Panhandle. Kentucky native Pleasant Andrew Buntin (1849-1941) brought his family to Texas in 1879, settling first in Mobeetie (Wheeler Co.). The Buntins moved to Clarendon in 1888 following the arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad. P.A. Buntin rode a mail route from there through Palo Duro Canyon and Schott Gap (Briscoe Co.) to the Caprock, changing wagons and horses to make the 60-mile round trip in a single day. Buntin also operated a dairy, and he was a charter member of the Methodist church and the Masonic lodge in Clarendon. At this site in 1899, Buntin established a funeral home, one of the earliest in the Texas Panhandle. He and his wife, Lucy Jane (Gibbs), had four children, and their youngest son Fred continued in the family business. Fred attended Clarendon College and the Dallas School of Embalming, and joined his father's company in 1919. The business territory covered several counties, and notable early burials conducted by the family included pioneer ranchers Charles and Mary Ann (Dyer) Goodnight in the 1920s. During World War II, the civic-minded Buntin Funeral Home provided military service plaques -- with blue stars for active personnel and gold stars for casualties -- for families to display in the windows of their homes. The Buntins sold the business in 1945, although the family name remained in use with others for several years. A number of families have since been associated with the historic operation, including, from 1977, the Robertsons, who for a short time owned another funeral parlor in Clarendon. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For over a century this site has held a funeral home serving a wide stretch of the Texas Panhandle. Kentucky native Pleasant Andrew Buntin brought his family to Texas in 1879 and, after the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad reached Clarendon, established the business here in 1899—one of the earliest in the region. His son Fred, trained at the Dallas School of Embalming, carried it on, and the family conducted burials across several counties, including that of famed rancher Charles Goodnight in the 1920s.
Why it matters
The enterprise illustrates how railroads and family businesses knit together the sparsely settled Panhandle into functioning communities.
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Related people
- · Pleasant Andrew Buntin
- · Fred Buntin
- · Charles Goodnight
Related events
- · Arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad
Themes & tags
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