Brownfield Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Brownfield Cemetery, out in Terry County. Now settle in, because every good cemetery has a story, and this one starts the way so many West Texas stories do: with somebody who died too young. The year was 1904, and Brownfield was a brand-new county seat, fresh on the map, still finding its feet.

That was the year a nineteen-year-old named Jessie Hill died and was interred here, marking the very first public burial in what would become Brownfield Cemetery. One life, one grave, and just like that, the ground had a purpose. By 1907, the land itself belonged to a man named M.

V. Brownfield. Now, you might be wondering whether the cemetery took its name from him or from the town of Brownfield itself.

The records, friend, do not say. That question just sits there, open, like a gate nobody ever latched. Then came the hard years.

World War I rolled through, and the cemetery fell into decline. Local residents simply could not maintain it. Then came the Great Depression, another blow.

Then World War II, another stretch of neglect. Three separate waves of hardship, and each time the grass grew a little taller over those stones and the fence leaned a little further. But West Texas has a way of renewing itself.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Hispanic farm workers began to settle in the area, and by the 1970s the cemetery itself reflected that change in population. A new community was writing itself into the same ground. Then in 1980, the cemetery association reorganized, and much-needed improvements finally came.

By 1999, more than two thousand graves graced that land. About three hundred and seventy-five of them were unmarked, nameless to the living, though not forgotten by the earth. The marker calls the cemetery a chronicle of Terry County, and that is exactly right.

Every county seat needs a place that holds its whole story, the founders and the farm workers, the named and the unnamed, the years of care and the years of neglect. Brownfield Cemetery holds all of it.

What the marker says

The first public burial ground in the new Terry County seat of Brownfield was begun in 1904 when 19-year-old Jessie Hill died and was interred here. By 1907, this land belonged to M. V. Brownfield; records do not indicate whether the cemetery was named for him or for the town. During World War I, the Great Depression and World War II, the cemetery fell into decline as local residents were unable to maintain it. Hispanic farm workers began to settle in this area in the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1970s the cemetery reflected the change in population. A reorganization of the cemetery association in 1980 led to much-needed improvements. More than 2,000 graves, about 375 of them unmarked, graced the cemetery in 1999. The cemetery remains a chronicle of Terry County. (1999)