Pioneer Cemetery
Cross Plains, Eastland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Tradition holds that Captain A.M. Curry suggested the name for the Pioneer community, established in 1883. Bill Smith became its first postmaster in 1885. The burial here of Mrs. S.A. Briggs (believed to be Catherine P. Owsley Briggs) in 1879, however, predates the community development. Landowners William L. and Mary Ann (Hampton) Browning formally deeded the site in 1906 for use as a burial ground for the largely agricultural settlement. An oil boom in the 1920s brought thousands of new residents. By the 1940s, oil production waned, and the railroad, as well as the majority of settlers and businesses, left the area. Over the years, additional land donations have enlarged the cemetery. Pioneer Quilting Club members served as long-time caretakers, raising funds for cleaning and for a war memorial placed in 1948 to commemorate area soldiers killed in World Wars I and II. Among the others buried here is Catherine Martin O'Neal Lovett, a Cherokee survivor of the Trail of Tears march of 1838. Today, an association maintains the burial ground, which is a link to the early settlement of Pioneer. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Pioneer community took shape in the 1880s, though the earliest burial here—Mrs. S.A. Briggs in 1879—predates it, and the landowners formally deeded the ground in 1906. An oil boom in the 1920s swelled the population by thousands before production waned and the railroad and most settlers moved on. Among those resting here is Catherine Martin O'Neal Lovett, a Cherokee survivor of the 1838 Trail of Tears, alongside a war memorial the local quilting club raised in 1948 for soldiers lost in the World Wars.
Why it matters
A single rural cemetery gathers strands of the whole American story—Cherokee removal, boom-and-bust oil, and wartime sacrifice—into one plot of Texas ground.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Catherine Martin O'Neal Lovett
- · A.M. Curry
Related events
- · Trail of Tears
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Mason-Camp Cooper Military Road
Cross Plains, TX
Between 1851 and 1861, the U.S. 2nd Cavalry and its supply trains moved along this route linking Fort Mason to Camp Cooper during the army's antebellum campaigns against the Plains Indians. Among the officers who traveled the road were men soon to become giants of the Civil War, including Robert E. Lee and George H. Thomas, the future 'Rock of Chickamauga.'
Site of Cottonwood Springs
Cottonwood, TX
After the U.S. Army's campaigns of 1874 broke the power of the Plains tribes, settlers rushed into this corner of Callahan County, drawn by game, water, and good ranching and farming land. Cottonwood Springs, founded in 1875 at the head of Green Briar Creek, quickly grew into a trading center with stores, two churches, and a school—though it saw its share of gunfights. When a post office opened in 1883, the name was trimmed simply to Cottonwood.
Ruins of Camp Colorado
Coleman, TX
Camp Colorado was established by the U.S. Army to guard the Texas frontier against raids, moving to this site in 1856 before Federal troops abandoned it as the Civil War began in early 1861. In 1870 the land passed to Henry Sackett, who built his home on the old post grounds. From here in 1874 Sackett rode with Maltby's Rangers in pursuit of the Comanche bands of chiefs Big Foot and Jape.
Hittson Ranch Headquarters on Battle Creek
Putnam vicinity, TX
Battle Creek earned its name in 1840 when a party hunting raiders was itself attacked near the water. Two decades later cattleman John Hittson built what is believed to be the first ranch headquarters in Callahan County on that same ground — just corrals, branding pens, and a modest shelter used at roundup time. It marks the moment open Texas rangeland began to be organized into working ranches.