Grandview Cemetery and Original Grand View Town Site
Grandview, Johnson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
John Whitmire, the son-in-law of early settler F. L. Kirtley, is credited with naming this town in 1854 by saying, "What a Grand View!" Kirtley donated 2.5 acres for a Baptist church and cemetery in 1856. Intending to lay out a town plat, James F. Scurlock purchased about 1400 acres of land surrounding the cemetery the same year. The oldest marked burial here is that of James F. and Rebecca Criner Scurlock's child, James C., who was born and died on June 4, 1857. By 1860 Grand View included three general stores, a blacksmith shop, a church building and Lodge No. 266, A.F & A.M., chartered in 1861 as the first Masonic lodge in Johnson County. After James Scurlock's death during the Civil War, his family sold the town site to F. M. Sansom. Several stores, a saloon, and more churches were established as the community grew. Of the many graves in the cemetery, one has taken on the status of local legend. A pair of young travelers came to Grand View one evening in summer 1867. The young woman was found murdered the next morning with no sign of her companion. The people of the community buried her in a handmade coffin and marked her tombstone "Annie," the name on an embroidered handkerchief she carried. The African American section of the cemetery contains the graves of many residents, including the unmarked graves of Scott and Elmira Matlock. They were among Grand View's earliest settlers. The railroad came through about a mile southeast of the town in 1881, and by 1883 the main section of Grand View had moved to it. The cemetery gradually took over the entire old town site. The cemetery continued to serve the community, now known by the single word "Grandview." The cemetery and the original town site remain as a chronicle of the pioneers of Johnson County. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Grand View reportedly took its name in 1854 when John Whitmire exclaimed "What a Grand View!", and settler F. L. Kirtley soon donated land for a Baptist church and cemetery. The town grew with general stores, a blacksmith, and Johnson County's first Masonic lodge, though its founder James Scurlock died during the Civil War. The cemetery holds pioneers, the mysterious murdered traveler remembered only as "Annie," and an African American section including early settlers Scott and Elmira Matlock. When the railroad passed a mile away in 1881, the town migrated to the tracks and the cemetery gradually reclaimed the original site.
Why it matters
Grandview's story—settlement, a Civil War death, a legendary unsolved grave, and a railroad that moved a whole town—distills the full arc of a 19th-century Texas community into one hallowed acre.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When John Whitmire is said to have looked out over this rolling North Texas prairie in 1854 and called it a "grand view," the region was still very much a frontier. Texas had been a state for less than a decade, and Johnson County itself was brand new. Settlers were pouring into the blackland prairies south of the Trinity River, drawn by cheap, fertile ground and the promise of a fresh start.
These were the years of the early Republic giving way to statehood — a time of general stores, blacksmith shops, and log churches, when a "town" might be little more than a crossroads with a cemetery and a lodge hall. Grand View grew in exactly that pattern: a donated acre for a Baptist congregation, a plat laid out around a burying ground, and a Masonic lodge that doubled as one of the few institutions binding scattered families together.
Then came the Civil War, which reached even a small settlement like this one, taking the town's founder among countless others. And behind the white settlers' story runs another, quieter one — of the African American residents who lived, worked, and were buried here, their presence recorded in the cemetery's own ground even where names were never carved.
People & events
The story begins with F. L. Kirtley, an early settler whose son-in-law, John Whitmire, gave the town its name. Kirtley put land to lasting use, donating two and a half acres in 1856 for a Baptist church and cemetery. That same year James F. Scurlock bought some fourteen hundred acres around the graveyard, meaning to lay out a proper town.
Grief marked the place early. The oldest marked grave belongs to James and Rebecca Scurlock's infant son, born and lost on a single day in June 1857. Within a few years the town had three general stores, a blacksmith, a church, and Johnson County's first Masonic lodge. When James Scurlock died during the war, his family sold the town site, and the community kept growing with new stores, a saloon, and more churches.
One grave became legend. In the summer of 1867, two young travelers arrived one evening; by morning the young woman lay murdered and her companion had vanished. The people buried her themselves, marking the stone only "Annie" — the name embroidered on the handkerchief she carried. Nearby, in the cemetery's African American section, rest early settlers Scott and Elmira Matlock, their graves unmarked but their place among the town's founders remembered.
Its place in the American story
Grand View's arc is the American frontier town in miniature. Across the nineteenth century, thousands of communities like it rose on donated land around a church and a cemetery, flourished for a generation, and then quietly reshaped themselves — or disappeared — when the railroad chose a different path. In 1881 the tracks came through about a mile away, and within two years the living town simply picked up and moved to meet them.
What that migration left behind is a national pattern written in one place: the cemetery slowly reclaiming the original town site until the graves stood where the stores once had. The dead stayed; the town walked to the rails. It is a vivid reminder of how completely the railroad redrew the map of America, deciding which places would grow and which would become memory.
The cemetery also preserves the fuller truth of who built these towns. The presence of Scott and Elmira Matlock in the African American section — early settlers in unmarked graves — speaks to the Black Texans whose labor and lives were part of the founding, and whose stories the national narrative long overlooked.
If you visit
Grandview Cemetery is best understood as a place that is both a graveyard and the ghost of a town — you are literally standing where the general stores, the blacksmith, and the first Masonic lodge once stood. Walk it slowly and let the dates on the stones tell you the sequence: the 1857 infant's grave, the Civil War years, the community that kept burying its own long after the buildings moved to the railroad.
Look for the older section and imagine the crossroads settlement that surrounded it before 1881. Seek out the stone marked simply "Annie" and consider the summer night behind it — a mystery the town chose to honor rather than forget. Then pay attention to the African American section, where Scott and Elmira Matlock and other early residents lie; even unmarked ground is part of the record here.
It fits naturally into a day exploring small-town Johnson County history. Come with a little time and a quiet frame of mind — this is a place that rewards reading the whole hillside rather than a single marker, and it asks to be treated as the hallowed ground it is.
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
- · John Whitmire
- · F. L. Kirtley
- · James F. Scurlock
- · Scott and Elmira Matlock
Related events
- · Arrival of the railroad, 1881
Themes & tags
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