Pearce Chapel-Strip Cemetery
Abernathy, Hale County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The only landmark of the Strip Community, named for its location on a 1.5 by 15-mile strip of land opened to homesteaders in the 1890s. William Houston Pearce (1844-1926) moved into the area in 1895 and started a school, called "Round-Top", or "Strip". Small groups began to worship in the schoolhouse, and one congregation formed Pearce Chapel Methodist Church. F. E. Andrews (1857-1898) gave a cemetery tract in 1898, and late that year his was the first grave. Strip Post Office opened in 1904 with Postmaster Jerry W. Turner handling the mail in his home. In 1906, a Union Church was built near the cemetery site, which was purchased by public subscription in 1907, in order to clear the title. In 1910 the Strip Post Office closed after service was made available in Abernathy. The school and church buildings were moved to Lakeview in succeeding years, but this cemetery continues to be used. By 1973 it had 180 graves. War veterans buried here include two Confederate soldiers, James E. Fitzgerald and William Houston Pearce; World War I veterans George W. Fitzgerald, George Harkness, and Leroy Mahagan; World War II veterans Thomas L. Goldston, Harvey Shelby Pittman, and John Fred Sherman. 1974
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When a 1.5-by-15-mile 'Strip' of land opened to homesteaders in the 1890s, settlers like William Houston Pearce built a schoolhouse that doubled as a place of worship, birthing Pearce Chapel Methodist Church. A cemetery followed in 1898, and a small post office, union church, and community grew up around it before nearby Abernathy drew the settlement away. The chapel and school were eventually moved, but the cemetery endures with veterans of the Civil War through World War II among its graves.
Why it matters
The Strip Community captures the fleeting rise and fall of a homesteader settlement on the West Texas plains.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1890s, the high plains of West Texas were among the last parts of the state opened to farm settlement. The great cattle ranches and open ranges of earlier decades were giving way to homesteaders, who came hoping to build farms and communities on the flat, wide-open land.
Land on the plains was surveyed in large blocks, and gaps or odd parcels sometimes became available to settlers. The Strip Community took its name from one of these: a narrow strip of land, 1.5 miles wide and 15 miles long, opened to homesteaders in the 1890s.
Communities on the plains depended on schools, churches, and post offices to hold them together. When railroads and larger towns arrived in the early twentieth century, many small settlements faded as services moved to the new towns. This one followed that pattern.
People & events
William Houston Pearce came to the area in 1895. He was a Confederate veteran, born in 1844, and he started a school known as "Round-Top" or "Strip." As on many frontiers, the schoolhouse soon became a church as well. Small groups worshiped there, and one of those congregations became Pearce Chapel Methodist Church.
In 1898, F. E. Andrews gave land for a cemetery. Late that same year, his own grave became its first. The Strip Post Office opened in 1904, with Postmaster Jerry W. Turner handling the mail in his home. A Union Church was built near the cemetery in 1906, and the next year the cemetery land was bought by public subscription to clear its title.
The community's institutions then began to drift away. The post office closed in 1910, once mail service came through Abernathy. The school and church buildings were later moved to Lakeview. The cemetery stayed and remained in use, with 180 graves by 1973. Among them are veterans of three wars: Confederate soldiers James E. Fitzgerald and William Houston Pearce; World War I veterans George W. Fitzgerald, George Harkness, and Leroy Mahagan; and World War II veterans Thomas L. Goldston, Harvey Shelby Pittman, and John Fred Sherman.
Its place in the American story
The Strip Community represents thousands of short-lived settlements across the American West. Homesteaders put up schools and churches, communities briefly took shape, and then they were absorbed by railroad towns and larger centers that offered mail service, trade, and better transportation.
The veterans buried here show how much changed within a single community's history. A Confederate veteran helped found the settlement, and its sons and grandsons later served in the world wars. In one rural cemetery, you can trace the arc from the Civil War to World War II.
Cemeteries often outlast the communities that created them. Long after the post office, schoolhouse, and chapel were gone, this burial ground remained, and today it is the last physical trace of the Strip.
If you visit
The cemetery sits in the farm country near Abernathy in Hale County, on the South Plains between Lubbock and Plainview. The landscape is flat and open, with huge skies, and it gives you a real sense of what the homesteaders of the 1890s faced.
The marker calls this the only remaining landmark of the Strip Community. As you walk the grounds, look for the names of the families and veterans mentioned on the marker. This is an active cemetery, so please be respectful of graves and of any families visiting.
It's a short detour from the highways that cross the South Plains, and it pairs well with the region's other small-town museums and historic sites.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · William Houston Pearce
- · F. E. Andrews
- · Jerry W. Turner
Themes & tags
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