Turnbow Cemetery
Dublin, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Kentucky native Chesley Turnbow wed Sabra Rose of Tennessee in 1827. They lived in Tennessee and later in Arkansas before moving to Texas in the 1850s. By the 1870s they had settled on land at this site. The cemetery began as a family burial ground in 1879 with the interment of their grandchild, Henry Lee Rose, the infant son of Granville and Mary (Turnbow) Rose. In April of the following year Dovie Powell, the daughter of Louis Blake and Louisa (Chaddock) Powell, was buried in a nearby grave. That same month Chesley Turnbow, patriarch of the Turnbow family in Erath County, died and was buried near his grandson. Seven of his ten children are also among those buried here. Although the cemetery was established by the 1880s, it was not formally set aside until 1940. The donors were the heirs of William and Lettie Fox, Tennessee natives who moved to Erath County about 1870 and later purchased the Turnbow property. Individuals buried at this site include members of the Turnbow family, other pioneer settlers and their descendants, longtime residents of the surrounding rural community, and veterans of military conflicts, beginning with the Civil War. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chesley Turnbow and his wife Sabra worked their way west from Kentucky and Tennessee through Arkansas before settling on this Erath County land in the 1850s. The burial ground began in 1879 with the grave of an infant grandchild, and within months it held the family patriarch himself; seven of his ten children rest here as well. It became the resting place of pioneer families, longtime rural neighbors, and veterans of America's wars beginning with the Civil War.
Why it matters
A family plot that grew into a community cemetery, it maps the arrival and endurance of the pioneers who settled the Texas cross timbers.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1850s, the frontier of Anglo-American settlement in Texas was pushing west into the Cross Timbers, a band of oak woodland and prairie that runs through what is now Erath County. Families arrived by wagon from the older Southern states, often after years of moving step by step westward, and claimed land along the creeks.
Life here was demanding. Settlers cleared land, raised livestock and crops, and lived with the uncertainty of the frontier, and then with the upheaval of the Civil War and the difficult years that followed. By the 1870s and 1880s, more families were putting down roots in Erath County, and scattered homesteads were growing into rural communities.
In those communities the family burial ground was a familiar institution. With no town cemetery nearby, families buried their dead on their own land. Many of those plots gradually took in neighbors and grew into community cemeteries that outlasted the farms around them.
People & events
Chesley Turnbow, a Kentuckian, married Sabra Rose of Tennessee in 1827. Their story follows the westward rhythm of so many American families: years in Tennessee, then Arkansas, then the move to Texas in the 1850s. By the 1870s they had settled on this land, raising a family that would number ten children.
The cemetery began with a loss. In 1879 the Turnbows buried their infant grandson, Henry Lee Rose, son of Granville and Mary (Turnbow) Rose. The following April, a little girl named Dovie Powell, daughter of Louis Blake and Louisa (Chaddock) Powell, was laid in a nearby grave. That same month Chesley Turnbow himself died, and he was buried near the grandson whose grave had started it all. Seven of his ten children would eventually rest here as well.
Later the land passed to other hands. William and Lettie Fox, also Tennesseans, had come to Erath County around 1870 and afterward bought the Turnbow property. In 1940 their heirs formally set the cemetery aside, protecting what had already been a burial ground for some sixty years. Over the decades it has taken in Turnbows, other pioneer families, longtime neighbors from the surrounding countryside, and veterans of America's wars, beginning with the Civil War.
Its place in the American story
The Turnbows' path from Kentucky and Tennessee through Arkansas to Texas is a textbook case of how the American South moved west. Families rarely went straight to the frontier; they moved in stages across generations, carrying their customs, faith, and kinship networks with them. That pattern peopled much of Texas.
Family cemeteries like this one are among the most honest records of that migration. Their stones show birthplaces, family ties, and the heavy toll of infant and childhood death on frontier families. Here, the first two graves both held small children.
The veterans buried here, starting with the Civil War, tie this quiet rural plot to the nation's larger conflicts. And the 1940 act of the Fox heirs, who formally dedicated a burial ground started by another family, reflects a widespread American ethic: that graves deserve protection, whoever owns the land.
If you visit
Turnbow Cemetery is a rural burial ground near Dublin, in the Cross Timbers country of Erath County. Expect a quiet, simple setting where the landscape of oak and pasture still suggests what the Turnbows saw when they arrived.
Walk slowly and read the stones. Look for the names of the Turnbow and Rose families, and remember that the whole cemetery grew from one small grave in 1879. Look too for veterans' markers, which can span generations of American service. Please treat the site with care: stay on paths where they exist, don't make rubbings of fragile stones, and respect any nearby private land.
This is a good stop for families interested in genealogy or pioneer history, and it fits easily into a drive through the small towns and back roads of Erath County. Bring your curiosity and a little quiet; rural cemeteries like this reward an unhurried visit.
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
- · Chesley Turnbow
- · Sabra Rose Turnbow
Themes & tags
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