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Peaster Cemetery

Peaster, Parker County, Texas

Marker Inscription

South Carolina native Henry H. Peaster purchased 160 acres here in 1870. The village of Peaster began with Henry Peaster's sale of town lots here in the late 1880s. The earliest recorded burial is that of Mary D. Hunt in 1886. In 1893 Peaster donated two acres here for cemetery purposes. Still active, the cemetery contains the graves of early area settlers and their descendants; veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II; and Peaster's most famous citizen, John Alexander Fox, who created the "Buster Brown" character for the Buster Brown Shoe Company's advertising campaign. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

The village of Peaster grew from land South Carolinian Henry H. Peaster bought in 1870 and the town lots he began selling in the late 1880s. He donated two acres for this still-active cemetery in 1893, and among its early settlers and war veterans rests John Alexander Fox, the artist who created the "Buster Brown" character for a famous shoe-advertising campaign.

Why it matters

The burial ground preserves the memory of a Parker County settlement's founders and, in Fox's grave, an unexpected link to the birth of modern American brand advertising.

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Related people

  • ยท Henry H. Peaster
  • ยท John Alexander Fox
  • ยท Mary D. Hunt

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryLandmark

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