Slater Cemetery
Pearl, Coryell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery served the once thriving farming and ranching community of Slater, which formed in the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, the community had two churches, a post office, a school and various businesses. In 1907, James and Ellen Martin donated land to be used as a free burial ground for Slater residents. Their son, Curry, was buried that year; his is the cemetery's oldest marked grave. A cemetery association organized in 1964 continues to care for the burial ground. Veterans, landowners and community leaders are among those buried here. Today, it is all that remains of Slater, preserving the record of the pioneering families who settled in this area. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Slater Cemetery is nearly all that survives of a once-thriving farming and ranching community that took root in Coryell County in the late 1800s. By the early 1900s Slater supported two churches, a post office, a school, and businesses. In 1907 James and Ellen Martin donated land for a free burial ground, and their son Curry, buried that year, lies in its oldest marked grave.
Why it matters
As the last trace of a vanished settlement, the cemetery preserves the record of the pioneer families whose farming towns once dotted central Texas.
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Related people
- · James Martin
- · Ellen Martin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
King Cemetery
Gatesville, TX
This burial ground was already in use before it was formally deeded in 1880 to the Stringtown Baptist Church for church and school purposes, with a number of graves dating to 1873 and unmarked burials likely older still. For generations, residents of the King community gave their time and money to tend the site, and a cemetery association organized in 1960 to sustain the effort. Today descendants support a trust fund to preserve it.
King Baptist Church
King, TX
This congregation began in 1875 when Baptists gathered to worship in the Stringtown log schoolhouse and baptized converts in Cowhouse Creek. A land gift from Monroe and Mary Puett in 1880 gave the church a home, and a new sanctuary rose in 1901 through volunteer labor; the congregation took the name King Baptist Church in the 1930s. Rebuilt again in 1974, it has served this corner of Coryell County for well over a century.
Pearl Cemetery
Pearl, TX
In the rolling country of Coryell County, the community first called Wayback—a clerical mangling of "Swayback"—took the softer name Pearl in 1890 for a postmaster's young cousin. Its cemetery grew out of grief and generosity when the Keeton family set aside land after burying fourteen-year-old Lillian in 1896, later deeding acreage for public graves. The ground holds pioneers, victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic including a doctor who died treating the sick, and veterans of every American war from the Civil War through Vietnam.
Pidcoke Cemetery
Gatesville vicinity, TX
Serving the ranching communities of Pidcoke and Harman, this cemetery dates to at least 1885, when six-year-old Mattie Jeter was buried here after a fatal fall from a wagon. Local landowners deeded the ground formally in 1896, and generations of the founding families lie here, their stock-raising economy sustaining the area until the 1942 creation of Camp Hood forced many families to relocate. Among the graves are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.