HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Prairie Mound Cemetery

Argyle, Denton County, Texas

Marker Inscription

This burial ground was in use by 1882 when adjoining property was deeded to the Prairie Mound Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The earliest marked grave here is that of Edgar Myers (1875-1878), the son of J. E. and M. J. Myers. Church services were discontinued before 1920, and a public school, organized nearby in 1878, was consolidated with neighboring districts in the 1940s. Shortly after the original sanctuary was removed from the site in 1961, the Lark Heath Memorial Chapel was dedicated. Many pioneer settlers of the Argyle-Justin area are buried here. (1981) Incise on back: Donated by J. Heath Family, Argyle Centennial Committee

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Prairie Mound Cemetery was in use by 1882, the year adjoining land was deeded to the Prairie Mound Methodist Episcopal Church, South; its oldest marked grave is that of little Edgar Myers, who died in 1878. A nearby public school, organized in 1878, and the church anchored this Denton County farming community for decades before both faded—the school consolidated away in the 1940s and the original sanctuary removed in 1961. Many pioneer settlers of the Argyle-Justin area rest here.

Why it matters

Church, school, and cemetery together tell the story of a North Texas pioneer settlement, preserving the memory of the families who first farmed the prairie.

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Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryLandmark

Nearby & related markers

Johns' Well and Campgrounds

Argyle, TX

In 1884 members of the Prairie Mound Methodist Church set aside this ground as a religious campground, its brush arbor sheltering worship during ten-day summer camp meetings. A dependable well—named for former owner Hardin Johns—drew not only campers but settlers and travelers passing through. As nearby communities built their own churches the meetings faded, and the land was sold in 1913, though the well served neighbors until 1963.

Argyle

Argyle, TX

First settled in the 1850s by families of the Peters Colony land grant, this Denton County community became the town of Argyle in 1881 when a Galveston developer platted it along a new rail line. Neighboring settlements fed its early growth, and several small country schools eventually consolidated into its district. A fire leveled the business district in 1895, but residents rebuilt, and the town has since ridden the tides of nearby urban growth.

Graham-Argyle Cemetery

Argyle, TX

This burial ground served the farming community of Graham that grew here after the Civil War, its first known grave that of the infant George Isbell in December 1865. A nearby structure housed both a school and Graham Baptist Church. When settlers shifted to Argyle on the Texas and Pacific Railroad after 1881, the school and church followed, and the land was formally deeded for cemetery use in 1888; volunteers began restoring its roughly 238 graves in 1974.

Argyle United Methodist Church

Argyle, TX

Chartered in 1894 with twenty-seven members, this Methodist congregation began under circuit rider Blueford Henry Webster, worshipping in the Argyle schoolhouse until it bought land from the Texas and Pacific railway in 1898. The Rev. J.R. Atchley did much of the carpentry on the first frame sanctuary himself, and over the decades—seventy-eight years of them on a preaching circuit—the church became a center of civic life in Argyle.