Van Slyke Cemetery
Lindsay, Cooke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Van Slyke Cemetery Established 1883 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Van Slyke Cemetery, established in 1883 in Cooke County, holds a Historic Texas Cemetery designation recognizing its place in the settlement of the region. Founded during the Gilded Age growth of North Texas, it preserves the burial ground of the area's early families.
Why it matters
The cemetery marks the settlement-era communities that took root across North Texas in the late nineteenth century.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cooke County Courthouse Historical Marker
Gainesville, TX
Settlement of the area now known as Cooke County began in late 1845, at the very moment Texas was joining the United States, and the county was formally created by the state legislature in 1848. It took its name from William G. Cooke, a Quartermaster General of the Republic of Texas who had fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in the 1836 war for Texas independence. The courthouse this marker commemorates stood at the civic heart of that new county seat, the place where a frontier community organized its government and law.
Gainesville National Bank Historical Marker
Gainesville, TX
On October 21, 1882, local landowners J. M. Lindsay and C. C. Hemming founded the Gainesville National Bank, planting a permanent financial institution in what was still a North Texas frontier town near the Red River. As cattle trails gave way to railroads and settled farming in the Gilded Age, banks like this one anchored the transition, financing the merchants, ranchers, and farmers who turned Gainesville into a regional commercial hub.
J. D. "Ikard" Sugg
Gainesville, TX
Joseph D. "Ikard" Sugg (1854-1925), the youngest of thirteen children born in Mississippi, headed west as a teenager and worked a cattle drive north from the Red River in 1868. He became a prominent rancher in partnership with his brother Cal, leasing land across Indian Territory and Texas and even selling horses to the Mexican government, while always considering Cooke County his home. At his death he left bequests to the county poor farm and to the upkeep of this cemetery.
The Phillips House
Saint Jo, TX
J.H. Phillips brought his family from Illinois to Texas by wagon train in 1873 and helped shape early Saint Jo as storekeeper, hotelier, and Baptist preacher. His son G.W. prospered as a livery owner, horse trader, and rancher, buying land on the town's edge and, in 1911, commissioning the grand two-story home that neighbors dubbed "The Big House." A blend of Colonial Revival and Queen Anne styling, the house has stayed in the Phillips family for over a century.