Old Mounds Cemetery
Medicine Mound, Hardeman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery served residents of the original site of the community of Medicine Mound in southeast Hardeman County. The settlement took its name from mounds that rise abruptly from the otherwise flat topography of the county; one mound contained springs, herbs and gypsum believed to have medicinal properties. Established by the late 1800s, the community consisted of Gobins' General Merchandise Store, a school and a church. The cemetery was adjacent to the one-room building used both as a schoolhouse and sanctuary. Most early residents of the community participated in farming or ranching activities. Little information is known about the early pioneers buried here. It is believed that approximately nine burials took place in the community's early history. Only one original gravestone, dated 1891, is preserved, and it marks the burials of two infants, Smoot and Ford Kerley, children of settlers J.C. and Ida Kerley. Other known burials are of Old Mounds residents of Mexican descent. In 1908, the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway laid track two and half miles north of here. Residents moved near the railroad and the previous community came to be known as Old Mounds. In 1919, the school relocated as well, and soon the old settlement was entirely abandoned, as was the cemetery. Today, this burial ground is all that remains of Old Mounds, a testament to the pioneering farmers and ranchers of this area and the Hispanic families who lived and worked here. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This cemetery is the last trace of the original settlement of Medicine Mound, named for nearby mounds whose springs and minerals were thought to have healing properties. Established by the late 1800s beside a building that served as both schoolhouse and church, it holds only about nine known burials—including two infant Kerley children under its one surviving 1891 stone—and residents of Mexican descent. When the railroad passed to the north, the community moved and the old site was abandoned.
Why it matters
It preserves the memory of a vanished frontier community and the Anglo and Hispanic families who farmed and ranched this corner of West Texas.
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Related people
- · Smoot Kerley
- · Ford Kerley
- · J.C. Kerley
- · Ida Kerley
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Medicine Mound Community
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The area's earliest inhabitants were Comanche and Kiowa people who camped around four dolomite hills—the Medicine Mounds—prized for their healing properties. After the land was deeded to a railway in 1854 and Anglo settlers arrived in the 1870s, a small village grew, then relocated 2.5 miles north in 1908 when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway came through. At its peak Medicine Mound held 22 businesses and 500 people, but the Depression and a 1933 fire that burned the whole town drove its decline, and the last business closed in 1966.
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