Lorenzo Cemetery
Lorenzo, Crosby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1876, the Texas Legislature created the Crosby Land District, which included several present-day Panhandle counties. Ranchers soon began establishing large ranches throughout the region, and in 1890, brothers Avery, John Stuart, Howard and Prentiss Coonley of Chicago joined with Julian Bassett of New York to form the C.B. Livestock Company. In 1910, the company planned a rail line from Crosbyton to Lubbock, with towns platted along the route. It named the one here for Lorenzo Dow, a company attorney, and in 1916 it deeded land at this site to the county for a community cemetery. The first burial in Lorenzo Cemetery was reportedly that of a child who died of whooping cough in 1916. The first marked grave, dating to 1918, is that of W.A. Greenhill. Over the years, volunteers and local groups, including a cemetery association, have provided maintenance, helping to preserve th collective history of Lorenzo. The county sold the property in 1995 to the City of Lorenzo, and today the cemetery is a link to generations of men, women and children who made unique and lasting contributions to the community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2003
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After the Texas Legislature carved out the Crosby Land District in 1876, ranchers spread across the Panhandle, and in 1890 a group of Chicago and New York investors formed the C.B. Livestock Company. Planning a rail line from Crosbyton to Lubbock in 1910, the company platted towns along the route and named this one for its attorney, Lorenzo Dow. It deeded land here for a community cemetery in 1916, where a child lost to whooping cough was reportedly the first laid to rest.
Why it matters
The cemetery marks how corporate ranching and railroad promotion — not slow frontier drift — populated the Texas Panhandle, planting towns and their graveyards along the tracks.
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Related people
- · Lorenzo Dow
- · W.A. Greenhill
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lorenzo
Lorenzo, TX
Lorenzo sprang to life on April 10, 1911, the day the Crosbyton-South Plains Railway ran its first train to the spot. It took its name from Lorenzo Dow, an employee of the livestock company that promoted the townsite and, in 1914, urged local farmers to plant cotton. Incorporated in 1924, the little High Plains town grew into a cotton-farming center with its own churches, school, and businesses.
John Robinson Ralls
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When the Crosbyton-South Plains Railroad pushed across the high plains of West Texas, John Robinson Ralls saw a town where others saw only ranchland. A Georgia-born storekeeper turned rancher, he traded a thriving general store for a 10,000-acre spread and in 1911 founded the town that still bears his name. He gave away the townsite itself, land for the first school, lots for every church, and built much of the early business district, seeding a community from the ground up.
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When the railroad bypassed nearby Emma and cut instead across John R. Ralls's land, he founded a new town in its place and donated ground for homesites, the square, the school, and every church. This bank building was the grandest of the two-plus blocks of business houses he raised between 1915 and 1919 as the town took shape.
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