Terrace Cemetery
Post, Garza County, Texas
Marker Inscription
IN 1907, YOUNG VERA WESTBROOK DIED IN POST CITY AND WAS LAID TO REST IN A GRAVE NEAR TWO DRAW ROAD. IN 1908, WITH THE DEATH OF VERTIE ROGERS CONN, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE DOUBLE U CO. TOLD TOWN FOUNDER C. W. POST IN BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, ABOUT THE NEED FOR A CEMETERY. POST REPLIED “I WISH THERE WAS NO NEED FOR ANY SUCH SPOT, BUT WE HAVE TO CONDUCT OUR AFFAIRS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DICTATION OF A POWER MUCH SUPERIOR TO OUR OWN INTELLIGENCE.” POST PROVIDED LAND FOR THE CEMETERY AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR ITS LAYOUT. CONN WAS THE FIRST BURIAL ON OCT. 13, 1908. WESTBROOK WAS ALSO REINTERRED HERE. THE ORIGINAL 19.35 ACRE CEMETERY PLATTED IN 1912 HAS EXPANDED TO INCLUDE SEVERAL THOUSAND BURIALS, SERVING AS A TESTAMENT TO GENERATIONS OF FAMILIES.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Terrace Cemetery grew out of the earliest days of Post City, the model town founded on the Caprock in 1907 by cereal magnate C.W. Post. When two young deaths made a burial ground necessary, the Double U Company appealed to Post at his Battle Creek, Michigan headquarters; he supplied both land and a layout, along with a somber note on bowing to a power greater than his own. Platted at just under twenty acres in 1912, the cemetery has since grown to hold several thousand graves.
Why it matters
The cemetery ties a Progressive-era company town on the Texas plains to the paternalistic vision of C.W. Post, one of the era's great industrialists, who planned even his settlers' final resting place from afar.
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Related people
- · C.W. Post
- · Vera Westbrook
- · Vertie Rogers Conn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Terrace Cemetery Gateway
Post, TX
When cereal magnate C. W. Post founded Post City in 1908, workers gathered round rocks from nearby ranch canyons to build the piers of this cemetery gateway. Scottish immigrants George Samson and James Napier designed and built it, and Samson went on to serve the community as a leader for half a century.
The Post-Hundley House
Post, TX
Cereal magnate Charles W. Post founded the town of Post as a model community, and this native-stone cottage — quarried by hand from the nearby Caprock and built by his Double U Company in 1907 — served as his residence during frequent visits. The design came from a staffer at his Battle Creek, Michigan headquarters. Later families preserved the structure through the twentieth century.
Post
Post, TX
Cereal magnate C. W. Post founded this planned town on the Caprock in 1907, watering it first by windmill and later from White River Lake. Post envisioned a self-sufficient community sustained by ranching, farming, and industry — anchored by the Postex Cotton Mills, whose sheets and pillowcases gave the town year-round work. By the 1960s it also served as a hub for more than 1,750 oil wells across Garza County.
Charles W. Post
Post, TX
Charles W. Post (1854-1914), the internationally known creator of Post Cereals and an advertising genius, turned his fortune to town-building in 1906. Buying the Curry Comb Ranch and adjoining land — some 225,000 acres — he laid out Post City as a self-contained model community of towns and farms. He financed and supervised the work without profit, offering settlers homes and businesses far below cost in pursuit of his vision of debt-free private ownership.