Quail Cemetery
Collingsworth County, Collingsworth County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Among the earliest settlers of this area were J.E. & Mary Jane Blevins and their children. Arriving in 1902, they were soon involved in the organization of a community school, post office, and church. J.E. & Mary Jane Blevins donated land for each of those endeavors, as well as for a community cemetery. The Quail Cemetery was created in 1904, shortly after the death of the Blevins' infant son. The grieving parents donated land for a cemetery, and their son was the first to be buried here. There was no fence around the burial ground. Townspeople chose grave sites in which to bury members of their families. Though most graves are marked, some have plain stones, and the cemetery does contain some unmarked graves. Many of the burials are those of infants and young children, a testament to the hardships of life and rudimentary medical care in early Collingsworth County. Area pioneers buried in the Quail Cemetery include: J.E. Blevins (1860-1956), Mary Jane Blevins (1868-1926), Lydia Rose Atkinson (d. 1908), W.M. Barton (d. 1932), Lee Jeffres (d. 1932), W.I. Atkinson (d. 1940), J.A. White (d. 1915). Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When J. E. and Mary Jane Blevins reached this corner of the Texas Panhandle in 1902, they helped knit a raw prairie settlement together — donating land for a school, post office, church, and, after the death of their infant son in 1904, a community burial ground. Their child was the first laid to rest here, and the many small graves of infants and young children that followed testify to the harsh conditions and thin medical care of early Collingsworth County. Later burials of area pioneers turned the plot into a record of the community's founding families.
Why it matters
Rural cemeteries like Quail preserve the human cost of settling the American West, where families gambled everything on the frontier and often buried their youngest first.
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Related people
- · J. E. Blevins
- · Mary Jane Blevins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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