Ralls Cemetery
Ralls, Crosby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The original five acre tract of land for this burial grund was purchased from the C.B. Livestock Co. on September 7, 1915, four years after the town of Ralls was founded. The cemetery was first used for the interment of W.H. Shell (d. 1915). The Georgia marble Bible, erected in 1963 by the Ralls Garden Club, is one of many beautification projects by local organizations, including the Lions Club and Cemetery Association. Prominent community members are buried here, including John R. Ralls, town founder. Graves also include those of veterans of several wars. 1985
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Four years after the town of Ralls was founded, its residents bought a five-acre burial ground from the C.B. Livestock Company in 1915, first used that same year. Local groups like the Garden Club and Lions Club later beautified the grounds, adding a Georgia-marble Bible monument in 1963. Town founder John R. Ralls and veterans of several wars rest among its graves.
Why it matters
A young town's cemetery captures how quickly settlers on the South Plains put down roots, marking their community's permanence in the same decade they arrived.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Ralls sits on the South Plains of Texas, high, flat country below the Caprock where ranching once ruled. For much of the late nineteenth century, this region was dominated by big cattle operations running herds across enormous open ranges.
In the early twentieth century that began to change. Large ranch holdings were broken up and sold, railroads reached farther onto the plains, and farm families arrived to plow the grasslands, especially for cotton. New towns sprang up quickly, often in just a few years, to serve these newcomers with stores, schools, churches, and gins.
Ralls was one of those towns, founded in 1911. Within four years residents bought land from the C.B. Livestock Company for a cemetery, a telling detail: the land itself passed from a livestock company to a farming community, mirroring the region's shift from ranching to settled agriculture.
This was the Progressive Era nationally, a time of rapid growth, new technology, and reform. On the plains, it was also a time of hard work and risk, as families gambled on rain, crops, and markets in a dry and often unforgiving environment.
People & events
On September 7, 1915, the community purchased a five-acre tract from the C.B. Livestock Company for a burial ground. That same year, it received its first burial, W. H. Shell, who died in 1915. Every cemetery has a first grave, and his marks the moment Ralls began to bury its own, a quiet sign that people meant to stay.
Among those buried here is John R. Ralls, the town's founder. It is fitting that the man who gave the town its name rests in the cemetery his community created, alongside the families who answered his call to settle on the plains.
The cemetery also holds veterans of several wars. In the century since 1915, young people from Ralls left to serve their country in conflicts far from West Texas, and some returned to be buried in the town they came from. Their graves link this small plains community to the nation's larger history.
The cemetery's beauty is a community effort. In 1963 the Ralls Garden Club erected a Bible carved from Georgia marble, one of many beautification projects. The Lions Club and the Cemetery Association have also cared for the grounds, showing how local groups have kept the town's memory alive across generations.
Its place in the American story
The Ralls Cemetery tells a story that was repeated across the Great Plains in the early twentieth century: the closing chapter of the American frontier, as ranch country became farm country. Towns like Ralls were among the last wave of new communities founded on the plains, and many were built in just a few years.
A cemetery is one of the clearest signs that a community expects to last. Founding a town is one thing, but setting aside ground for the dead says that families plan to raise children, grow old, and stay. Ralls took that step within four years of its founding.
The veterans' graves link this small town to the nation's wars of the twentieth century and beyond. Communities like Ralls sent their sons and daughters into military service, and cemeteries like this one hold the national story in very local form.
The work of the Garden Club, Lions Club, and Cemetery Association also reflects a deeply American tradition: civic organizations taking care of shared spaces. Across the country, these volunteer groups have often been the ones who preserve local memory when no one else will.
If you visit
The South Plains landscape around Ralls is wide and open, with big skies and long horizons. A cemetery here feels different than one tucked into wooded hills: the sense of space is part of the experience, and it helps you understand how bold it was to build a town out here.
Look for the Georgia marble Bible erected by the Ralls Garden Club in 1963, a distinctive monument that reflects the community's care for the grounds. As you walk, notice the dates on the stones; many will reach back close to the town's founding, while others record later generations, and some mark veterans of the nation's wars.
Please visit with respect. This is an active burial ground for local families, so keep to the paths, don't disturb any decorations, and be mindful of anyone visiting a loved one's grave.
Ralls makes a good stop on a road trip across the South Plains and below the Caprock, where small farm towns, cotton fields, and dramatic escarpments tell the story of how this part of Texas was settled in the early twentieth century.
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
- · John R. Ralls
- · W. H. Shell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Emma Cemetery
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