Garden City Cemetery
Garden City, Glasscock County, Texas
Marker Inscription
GARDEN CITY CEMETERY THE GARDEN CITY COMMUNITY BEGAN USING THIS BURIAL GROUND AS EARLY AS 1886. THAT YEAR, A CHILD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN HILL AND HIS WIFE, LUCY, WAS BURIED HERE. FOUR YEARS LATER, A SIBLING WAS BURIED AT THE SAME SPOT; THE TWO GRAVES SHARE A SINGLE STONE. THE HILL FAMILY PLOT, WHERE SULLIVAN AND LUCY ARE ALSO BURIED, IS ONE OF MANY IN THE CEMETERY REPRESENTING THE EARLY AREA SETTLERS. OTHER EARLY FAMILY NAMES FOUND THROUGHOUT THE BURIAL GROUND ARE HANSON, GOOCH AND COX. FAMILY PLOTS ARE TYPICALLY BORDERED BY CONCRETE CURBING. MOST GRAVESTONES ARE VERTICAL, ESPECIALLY IN THE OLDER SECTION OF THE CEMETERY, WHICH IS INDICATED BY THE REMAINING DECORATIVE IRON FENCING. SOME OF THE INDIVIDUAL FAMILY PLOTS ALSO INCLUDE ORIGINAL FENCING. IN 1914, JOHN ETHERIDGE AND PERNEICE GORE LAWLER FORMALLY DESIGNATED THE ORIGINAL ONE-ACRE TRACT AS A CEMETERY. TODAY, THE COUNTY MAINTAINS THE BURIAL GROUND, TO WHICH THREE ACRES WERE LATER ADDED. AS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS, THE CEMETERY IS A SIGNIFI-CANT LINK TO THE COMMUNITY’S HISTORY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2003
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Garden City community began burying its dead here as early as 1886, when a child of county commissioner Sullivan Hill and his wife Lucy was laid to rest; a sibling joined the grave four years later, the two sharing a single stone. Early West Texas family names—Hanson, Gooch, Cox—recur across the plots, many bordered by concrete curbing and set off by decorative iron fencing in the older section. John Etheridge and Perneice Gore Lawler formally dedicated the original one-acre tract in 1914, and the county tends the enlarged grounds today.
Why it matters
As the resting place of Glasscock County's earliest settlers, the cemetery is a tangible link to the ranching families who first made a home on the arid West Texas plains.
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Related people
- · Sullivan Hill
Themes & tags
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