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Early RepublicReconstruction & Gilded Age

Long Meadows Cemetery

Lampasas, Lampasas County, Texas

Marker Inscription

PLEASANT C. COX, WHO PATENTED THIS LAND, FIRST VISITED THE AREA IN THE 1830s. HE AND HIS WIFE, MARTHA JANE (BYBEE), CAME TO TEXAS BY WAGON TRAIN FROM MISSOURI IN 1851, SETTLING HERE IN 1855. PLEASANT COX WAS ONE OF THE PETITIONERS TO CREATE LAMPASAS COUNTY IN 1856. MOST OF THE DOZENS OF BURIALS HERE ARE UNMARKED, WITH SOME PREDATING THE EARLIEST MARKED BURIAL OF JOSEPH COX (1867-1872). THE LAST BURIAL WAS FOR MARTHA JANE COX, WHO DIED IN 1912. AFTER THE FAMILY SOLD THE PROPERTY IN 1922, THE CEMETERY FELL INTO DISREPAIR. DESCENDANTS BEGAN TO PRESERVE AND RESTORE THE SITE IN THE 1980s. THE CEMETERY, WHICH FEATURES LIMESTONE MARKERS AND FIELDSTONES AND INTERIOR FENCING, REMAINS A VALUABLE RECORD OF PIONEER LIFE IN LAMPASAS COUNTY.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Pleasant C. Cox first saw this land in the 1830s and returned by wagon train from Missouri in 1851, settling here and helping petition for the creation of Lampasas County in 1856. Most of the dozens of graves on his patented land are unmarked, the earliest belonging to a Cox child; his widow, Martha Jane, was the last laid to rest here in 1912. Limestone markers, fieldstones, and interior fencing still record a founding pioneer family.

Why it matters

Family burial grounds like this preserve the story of the wagon-train pioneers who organized Texas's frontier counties in the mid-nineteenth century.

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Related people

  • ยท Pleasant C. Cox
  • ยท Martha Jane (Bybee) Cox

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryLandmark

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