Lancaster Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Thomas Lancaster came to Bell County in 1851. Farmer, rancher, a man who worked the land and knew it well.

At some point he looked over at the west side of Little Elm Creek and decided that patch of ground ought to serve the whole community, not just himself. So he set aside a plot. A burial ground, for anyone who needed it.

Now that's the kind of quiet generosity that doesn't make headlines, but it outlasts most things that do. People were laid to rest there even before Lancaster himself passed in 1867. And when he went, he became the oldest marked grave on that very land he gave away.

Think on that for a moment. The man donated the ground, and the ground kept him. There are over a hundred and seventy-five documented graves in that cemetery today, and beyond those, a number of unmarked ones.

Names the record never caught, or couldn't hold onto. In 1977, more than a century after Lancaster first set aside that plot, a cemetery association formed to make sure the place endured. They fenced the property, improved the roads on the site, and put up a sign at the entrance, so nobody rolls past not knowing what they're looking at.

Thomas Lancaster came to Bell County with a plow and a purpose. He left behind a field of a different kind, one that's still being tended.

What the marker says

Thomas Lancaster (1813-1867), a farmer and rancher who came to Bell County in 1851, set aside a plot of land on the west side of Little Elm Creek for a community burial ground. Although some burials took place here before Lancaster's death in 1867, his is the oldest marked grave. There are a number of unmarked graves, as well as over 175 documented ones. A cemetery association, formed in 1977, maintains the historic graveyard. In addition to fencing the property, the organizations has improved roads on the site and erected a sign at the entrance. (1987)