Hansford Cemetery
Spearman, Hansford County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First burial ground set aside in this county. Earliest grave (1890) was that of Mrs. Alfie P. Magee, wife of the first sheriff. Also, buried here: the Cator brothers, founders of Zulu Stockade; and the Wright brothers, early ranchers. Only official cemetery in county until 1928; is still in use. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This was the first burial ground set aside in Hansford County, its earliest grave that of Mrs. Alfie P. Magee, wife of the first sheriff, in 1890. Among those interred are the Cator brothers, founders of the Zulu Stockade, and the Wright brothers, early ranchers of the Texas Panhandle. It served as the county's only official cemetery until 1928 and remains in use today.
Why it matters
The graves here hold the founding generation of the Panhandle ranching frontier, a landscape settled only in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Texas Panhandle was one of the last parts of the state to be settled by ranchers and farmers. For generations it was the homeland of Plains Indian nations, and vast buffalo herds roamed its open grasslands. Only in the 1870s, after the U.S. Army's campaigns on the southern plains and the destruction of the buffalo herds by commercial hunters, did the region open to permanent Anglo-American settlement.
What followed was the age of the big ranches. Cattlemen moved in to take advantage of the endless grass, and small settlements began to dot the high plains. Counties that had existed only as lines on a map started organizing real governments with sheriffs, courts, and records.
Hansford County, in the far northern Panhandle near the Oklahoma line, was part of that wave. By the time of the first burial here in 1890, the frontier was turning into a community, though life remained remote, windy, and often hard.
On a frontier like this, setting aside a burial ground was an important step. It meant people intended to stay. A cemetery is one of the clearest signs that a place has gone from a stopover to a home.
People & events
The first grave in this cemetery, dug in 1890, belonged to Mrs. Alfie P. Magee, the wife of the county's first sheriff. Her burial marked the beginning of the county's first official resting place. It is a quiet reminder that frontier history was made not only by famous cowboys and lawmen, but also by the women who shared the hardships of building a new life on the plains.
Also buried here are the Cator brothers, founders of Zulu Stockade, an early outpost in the region. Stockades and trading posts were vital on the open plains, serving as gathering places, supply points, and shelter in a land with very few buildings. The brothers belong to the earliest chapter of Anglo-American life in this corner of Texas.
The Wright brothers, early ranchers, rest here too. Ranching was the backbone of the Panhandle economy, and families like theirs turned open range into working cattle operations.
For decades this was the only official cemetery in the county, until 1928. That means many of the people who shaped Hansford County's early years were laid to rest on this ground. The cemetery is still in use, so the stories of newer generations continue alongside those of the founders. In 1967 it was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Its place in the American story
The settlement of the Texas Panhandle was part of the larger story of the American West in the late nineteenth century. As the buffalo disappeared and the Plains Indian nations were forced onto reservations, ranchers and settlers moved onto the southern plains. This shift transformed one of the great grasslands of North America within a single generation.
The people buried in Hansford Cemetery represent that founding generation. Trading-post founders, ranchers, and a sheriff's family all appear here, reflecting the stages of frontier life, from early outposts to organized law and established ranches.
Cemeteries like this one are also valuable historical records. In places where few written records survive, the names and dates on gravestones help historians and families trace who came, when they arrived, and how communities grew.
The story is also a reminder that the frontier was not empty before these settlers arrived. The opening of the Panhandle came at great cost to the Native peoples who had lived here, a part of the history that deserves to be remembered alongside the pioneers.
If you visit
Hansford Cemetery sits in the wide-open country of the northern Panhandle near Spearman. Expect big skies, steady wind, and a sense of space that helps you understand what early settlers faced. Standing here, it is easy to imagine how isolated a ranch family might have felt in 1890.
As you walk among the graves, look for older stones that date to the county's early years. Weathered markers can tell you a great deal about frontier life, from family names to the ages people reached. Please treat the grounds with respect, since this is still an active cemetery.
This stop pairs well with a drive through the Panhandle's ranch country, where cattle still graze on the plains. It gives you a chance to connect the landscape you see out the car window with the people who first made a living here.
If you travel with children, encourage them to look for the oldest date they can find, then talk about what life might have been like on the plains back then, with no paved roads, few neighbors, and long distances to the nearest town.
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
- · Alfie P. Magee
- · Cator brothers
- · Wright brothers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Farwell
Gruver, TX
Established in 1886, Old Farwell was meant to be the seat of Hansford County but lost the election to a rival town that has itself since vanished. It took its name from John V. Farwell and his family, Chicago department-store magnates who received three million acres, the vast XIT Ranch spread across ten Panhandle counties, as payment for building the Texas State Capitol. All that survives here are stones from the casing of a 200-foot well, dug by hand to bring water to a town now gone.
Hansford County Sheriff Robert E. (Bob) Martin
Spearman, TX
Bob Martin came to newly settling Hansford County in 1906, bought land, and ran a livery stable that gave land-seekers from the north and east their only real way to travel the raw Panhandle. Chosen sheriff in 1908 for his standing as a good citizen — as many frontier lawmen were — he was, like his neighbors, a cowboy and farmer. In 1911 he was killed while helping a U.S. marshal make an arrest in a boundary dispute.
Spearman
Spearman, TX
Spearman rose where the Santa Fe Railway pushed its line across the Hansford County plains, reaching the townsite in 1920 and making it the county's first rail shipping point. Named for a railway land officer, the town drew the county seat in 1929 and built its courthouse two years later, anchoring a country of wheat, cattle, and later oil. A burst of growth in the early 1960s and its distinctive brick-paved streets marked it as a thriving Panhandle farm town.
Hansford County
Spearman, TX
Carved from earlier territorial claims and created in 1876, Hansford County took its name from John M. Hansford, a Republic of Texas figure who arrived in 1837, served in the Texas Congress, and sat as a judge of the Seventh Judicial District. Formal organization did not come until 1889, a reminder of how sparsely settled the Texas Panhandle remained decades after the county lines were drawn on paper.