DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Estacado Cemetery, out here in Lubbock County. Now, it starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start — with somebody who had no business being here, falling completely under the spell of the place. The year was 1878.
A man named Paris Cox, an Indiana Quaker born in 1846, rode out onto these plains with a group of buffalo hunters. Think about that pairing for a second — a Quaker from Indiana, moving across the Llano Estacado with buffalo hunters. And what Paris Cox saw out here, while the hunters were doing what hunters do, was something else entirely.
He saw cheap farmland, and a lot of it, stretching out in every direction. So he did what a man with a vision and a talent for persuasion does. He went back to Indiana, and he started advertising.
He had a plan for a Quaker colony, right here on the Texas Plains, and he wanted people to come. Some did. The first colonists arrived in 1879.
And the Texas Plains, which had looked so promising in the mind of Paris Cox, greeted them with a severe winter. Those first settlers were discouraged — and who could blame them. But here's the thing about a place that's already gotten into your imagination: it has a way of drawing more people than it repels.
Other settlers followed, folks of various religious beliefs, not just Quakers, and the settlement began to take shape. They called it Maryetta first — named in honor of Cox's wife. A gentle name for a rough country.
But in 1886, something shifted. The name changed. Maryetta became Estacado, pulling from the Spanish term for the Staked Plains — the Llano Estacado.
And 1886 was a big year for more than just the name. That was the year Crosby County was formally organized, and when the new county needed a seat of government, Estacado got the nod. A courthouse followed two years later.
The little Quaker colony had become something real — the center of a vast agricultural area, prospering, growing, mattering. And then the 1890s came calling. The county seat was moved — to Emma — and many of those early colonists who had weathered that brutal first winter and built something out of nothing began migrating to other areas.
Estacado's moment as a hub, as a seat of power, quietly passed. But cemeteries have a long memory. This one, right here, holds the remains of many of those early settlers and area leaders.
Paris Cox himself, who was born in 1846 and died in 1888, is buried here — gone before the decade that saw his town begin to fade, never knowing how the story turned out. He came as a visitor with buffalo hunters, became the man who put this place on the map, and ended up as part of the ground he once stood on and dreamed about. The cemetery is now part of Lubbock County.
It's a historic record, the marker says — of the individuals who opened the Texas Plains and led in the region's agricultural development. Towns can lose their courthouses. They can lose their county seats.
But a cemetery keeps the names. And out here on the Llano Estacado, Paris Cox's name is still in the ground.
What the marker says
In 1878 Paris Cox (1846-1888), an Indiana Quaker, visited this area with a group of buffalo hunters. Attracted by the abundance of cheap farm land, he returned to Indiana and began advertising his plans for a Quaker colony here. Although the first colonists who arrived in 1879 were discouraged by a severe winter, other settlers, including those of various religious beliefs, soon moved to the area. The settlement was first called Maryetta in honor of Cox's wife, but in 1886 it was renamed Estacado, part of the Spanish term for the Staked Plains, Llano Estacado. When Crosby County was formally organized in 1886, Estacado was chosen as the first county seat. A courthouse was built two years later. The center of a vast agricultural area, Estacado continued to prosper until the 1890s when the county seat was moved to Emma and many of the early colonists began migrating to other areas. An important reminder of Estacado's pioneers is this community cemetery, the burial site of many early settlers and area leaders, including Paris Cox. Now part of Lubbock County, it serves as a historic record of the individuals who opened the Texas Plains and led in the region's agricultural development. (1982)