HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Roscoe Cemetery

Roscoe, Nolan County, Texas

Marker Inscription

One of first settlers in Roscoe (when it was called Vista) was rancher-wheat grower W. J. Turner, who purchased cemetery site for burial of his brother-in-law, Joe Clecker, about 1887. Next interments: infants Frank E. Spires, 1892; Ethel Lena Turner, 1894. Other early graves are unidentified. (1972)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

When the settlement that became Roscoe was still called Vista, rancher and wheat grower W. J. Turner bought this ground around 1887 to bury his brother-in-law, Joe Clecker. The earliest marked graves that followed were those of infants in the 1890s, with other pioneer burials now lost to record. The little cemetery holds the first chapter of a West Texas farming community's history.

Why it matters

It marks the earliest resting place of the pioneer families who first settled a West Texas ranching and wheat-growing town.

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Related people

  • · W. J. Turner

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryLandmark

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