Lanes Chapel and Cemetery
Clifton, Bosque County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneer area settler Joshua McCuistion donated land at this site for a Methodist chapel to serve the community of Hollis Prairie. Completed about 1880 adjacent to a schoolhouse, it was built by John R. Lane and his sons, for whom the settlement was later named. The oldest marked grave in the church cemetery is that of Plonzo "Pompey" Cox (1840-1880). Regular worship services here were discontinued in 1960 and the Lanes Chapel Memorial Association was established to restore and maintain the building and grounds. A homecoming is held at this site each June. (1981)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Pioneer settler Joshua McCuistion donated this Bosque County land for a Methodist chapel to serve the community of Hollis Prairie. Built about 1880 next to a schoolhouse by John R. Lane and his sons — for whom the settlement was later named — it held regular services until 1960. A memorial association now maintains the building and grounds, and a homecoming gathers here each June.
Why it matters
Lanes Chapel shows how a single family's gift of land and labor could give a frontier community its name, its church, and a gathering place that outlives regular worship.
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Related people
- · Joshua McCuistion
- · John R. Lane
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield
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Scrutchfield Cemetery
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Set on two acres of an 1846 land survey, this cemetery was deeded to Bosque County for public burials by Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield in 1883. Family tradition holds that an infant, Minnie Henderson, was the first laid to rest here, though the oldest legible stone marks a six-month-old child from 1885. Scrutchfield, his wife, and his mother lie among more than fifty marked and unmarked graves of the county's early settlers.
Gary Cemetery
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South Carolinians William and Rutha Gary brought their family west and settled here by 1852, when the land still belonged to McLennan County. When Bosque County was formed in 1854, William Gary became one of its first five commissioners, and several Garys voted in its first election. The couple's graves, William's in 1855 and Rutha's in 1868, became the seed of a small family and community cemetery that filled slowly until the last burial in 1932.
Election Oak
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When newly organized Bosque County held its first election in August 1854, most of the ballots — 17 of the 21 cast in the whole county — were polled beneath this oak tree. Neighbors gathered here to choose their first judge, sheriff, clerk, and other officials, an intimate picture of democracy on a thinly settled frontier. In later years the spot, known as Pool Park, hosted the reunions of the county's Old Settlers Association.