Molsbee Chapel Cemetery
Nocona, Montague County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. Abraham Molsbee and his wife Susan Looney Molsbee brought their eight children to Texas from Tennessee in 1888. They purchased 965 acres of land for farming and stock raising. A minister in the Church of the Brethren denomination, Molsbee and Henry Brubaker established a church in Nocona in April 1889. Molsbee also was instrumental in the organization of a number of other congregations throughout northwest Texas. He did mission work in the communities of Williams Creek in Cooke County, Live Oak in Parker County, Lingleville in Erath County, Pampa in Gray County and Salt Creek in Montague County, as well as in the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). This cemetery, located adjacent to the Molsbee Chapel Church, began as a family graveyard when the Molsbees' 20-year-old son, Orville, died in 1888. Other marked 19th century graves are those of the Molsbees' son Robert, who died at age two in 1895 and a neighbor, Wilfred Beck, who died in 1898. Though the graveyard was used by the community at large, it legally was a private cemetery until 1942, when David C. Molsbee, who inherited the land including this site from his parents Abraham and Susan, deeded two acres for a community burial ground. A cemetery association was established in 1971. Many veterans of the Armed Forces are interred here, among them Confederate soldiers John P. Watson of the 43rd Georgia Regiment and Fulton B. Loe, Jr., of Company A28, Louisiana Infantry. Other veterans include participants in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam conflict. The burial ground continues to serve the area and is a chronicle of northwest Texas history. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Rev. Abraham Molsbee brought his family from Tennessee to Texas in 1888, he helped plant Church of the Brethren congregations across the northwest of the state and into Indian Territory. The graveyard beside his chapel began that same year with the burial of his 20-year-old son Orville, and over generations it grew from a family plot into a community burial ground formally deeded in 1942. Its rows chronicle frontier hardship and the service of veterans from the Confederacy through World War I, World War II, and Vietnam.
Why it matters
Rural church cemeteries like this one preserve the religious and family networks that knit together settlement on the northwest Texas frontier.
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Related people
- · Rev. Abraham Molsbee
- · Susan Looney Molsbee
- · Henry Brubaker
Themes & tags
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