Washita Cemetery
Canadian, Hemphill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This community burial ground is the primary remaining historic evidence of the Washita community. Anglo pioneers began to settle the area in the late 1870s and early 1880s. As the community grew, members established a school, church, and a post office. After the 1912 death of Winifred Thompson, infant daughter of Roy Thompson, there came a need for a community cemetery. Dr. M.L. Caldwell donated one acre in the southeast corner of his property to be used for such purposes. Since 1912, prominent citizens of Washita and surrounding communities have been laid to rest in the cemetery. Its graves provide a record of those families who first settled the Washita community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On the high plains of the eastern Texas Panhandle, Anglo pioneers put down roots around Washita in the late 1870s and 1880s, building the small institutions—school, church, post office—that turned a scattering of homesteads into a community. When Roy Thompson's infant daughter Winifred died in 1912, the settlers needed a burying ground of their own, and Dr. M.L. Caldwell gave an acre from the corner of his land. Ever since, the cemetery has gathered the families who first worked this country, its stones a quiet census of who lived and died here.
Why it matters
Frontier cemeteries like this are often the last surviving trace of vanished settlement communities, preserving in stone the record of the ordinary families who settled the American West.
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Related people
- · Winifred Thompson
- · M.L. Caldwell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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