Lawrence Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Sometime in 1873, the Texas and Pacific Railroad laid a line through what was then just open country out in Kaufman County. And that iron rail, as it had a way of doing all across this state, changed everything.

A group of investors looked at that new line and saw not just tracks; they saw opportunity. They formed something they called the Texas Colony Association, with a goal of promoting a town right there along that corridor. They named it Lawrence, after one of the company's own directors, and the town didn't waste any time.

Homes went up. Businesses followed. Lawrence was booming, or at least booming by the standards of a brand-new Texas town in 1873.

Now here's where the story turns, and it always turns. That same year the town was finding its footing, a seven-month-old child named Katie D. Hibbler was laid to rest.

The first burial in what would become the Lawrence Cemetery. Seven months on this earth. That little grave was the beginning of something that would outlast the town's grandest ambitions.

More than four hundred graves now rest in that cemetery: pioneers, families, whole generations of people who built their lives in this corner of Kaufman County. Lawrence the town may have come and gone with the fortunes of railroad commerce, but that cemetery is still there, quiet and enduring, keepin the names of those early settlers in the ground and in the record. Four hundred souls, started by one.

That's the weight of it.

What the marker says

In 1873, soon after the Texas and Pacific Railroad built a line through this area, a group of investors formed the Texas Colony Association with the goal of promoting a town. Named for one of the company directors, the town of Lawrence was established and soon boasted numerous homes and businesses. This community cemetery began that same year with the burial of seven-month-old Katie D. Hibbler. Now containing more than 400 graves, including those of many pioneers, the Lawrence Cemetery stands as a reminder of the area's early history.