Garden City Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Garden City Cemetery, out there in Glasscock County. Now, most folks drive past a cemetery without giving it a second thought. But slow down at this one, because the ground here has been holding stories since 1886.

That's the year the Garden City community first used this burial ground, and the first person laid to rest here was a child. A child of County Commissioner Sullivan Hill and his wife, Lucy. No fanfare, no formal designation, just a grieving family and a patch of West Texas earth.

Four years later, a sibling of that first child was buried at the very same spot. The two of them share a single stone. One stone for two.

You let that sit a moment. Sullivan and Lucy Hill themselves are also buried here, in what became the Hill family plot, one of many plots throughout this cemetery that tell the story of the early settlers who put down roots in this part of Texas. You'll find the names Hanson, Gooch, and Cox scattered through the burial ground as well, families who shaped this community in ways that time is still sorting out.

Walk the older section and you'll notice the decorative iron fencing still standing, marking that ground as the earliest part of the cemetery. Most of the gravestones are vertical, the way they did it back then. The individual family plots are often bordered by concrete curbing, some still wrapped in their original fencing, like the families never quite let go.

It wasn't until 1914 that John Etheridge and Perneice Gore Lawler made it official, formally designating the original one-acre tract as a cemetery. By then, of course, it had already been a cemetery for nearly three decades, doing its quiet work. The county maintains it now, and three acres were later added to that original one.

Four acres total, holding generations. The first child buried here in 1886, and the descendants of those early settlers still finding their way back. Some links to a community's history are written in courthouse ledgers.

Some are written in stone.

What the marker says

GARDEN CITY CEMETERY THE GARDEN CITY COMMUNITY BEGAN USING THIS BURIAL GROUND AS EARLY AS 1886. THAT YEAR, A CHILD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONER SULLIVAN HILL AND HIS WIFE, LUCY, WAS BURIED HERE. FOUR YEARS LATER, A SIBLING WAS BURIED AT THE SAME SPOT; THE TWO GRAVES SHARE A SINGLE STONE. THE HILL FAMILY PLOT, WHERE SULLIVAN AND LUCY ARE ALSO BURIED, IS ONE OF MANY IN THE CEMETERY REPRESENTING THE EARLY AREA SETTLERS. OTHER EARLY FAMILY NAMES FOUND THROUGHOUT THE BURIAL GROUND ARE HANSON, GOOCH AND COX. FAMILY PLOTS ARE TYPICALLY BORDERED BY CONCRETE CURBING. MOST GRAVESTONES ARE VERTICAL, ESPECIALLY IN THE OLDER SECTION OF THE CEMETERY, WHICH IS INDICATED BY THE REMAINING DECORATIVE IRON FENCING. SOME OF THE INDIVIDUAL FAMILY PLOTS ALSO INCLUDE ORIGINAL FENCING. IN 1914, JOHN ETHERIDGE AND PERNEICE GORE LAWLER FORMALLY DESIGNATED THE ORIGINAL ONE-ACRE TRACT AS A CEMETERY. TODAY, THE COUNTY MAINTAINS THE BURIAL GROUND, TO WHICH THREE ACRES WERE LATER ADDED. AS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS, THE CEMETERY IS A SIGNIFI-CANT LINK TO THE COMMUNITY'S HISTORY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2003