Lipscomb Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. The Texas Legislature created Lipscomb County in 1876, naming it for a man called Abner Lipscomb, an early Texas statesman. Now, about ten years after that, a fellow by the name of J.W.

Arthur came along and settled in the vicinity. He built himself a structure out of wood and sod, and inside that humble building he ran a general store and a post office. He called the place Lipscomb.

A community grew up around that post office, the way communities do when there's a place to send a letter and buy a bag of flour, and before long that community had grown into the county seat of government. Then comes 1887. An infant named Fred Mehlhop was buried in this ground, and that burial marks the formal establishment of Lipscomb Cemetery.

His is the first marked grave. Now, the marker is careful to note that unmarked graves exist here that may predate his burial. So the ground holds older stories than the stones let on.

Among those who rest here, you'll find Tom Connell, the first Lipscomb County Judge, along with other county officials, schoolteachers, ranchers, farmers, and military veterans. The full breadth of a frontier community, laid to rest in one piece of northeastern Texas panhandle soil. An early windmill and storage tank brought water to the site, which tells you something about the work it took just to tend the dead out here.

For years, the community gathered annually for cleanings and decoration days, neighbors showing up together to honor the ground and the people in it. Today, Lipscomb County itself maintains the burial ground. A county that began with a statesman's name, a sod post office, and one small marked grave, now keeps watch over all of it.

That's the kind of continuity you don't manufacture. You just earn it, one generation at a time.

What the marker says

The Texas Legislature created Lipscomb County in 1876, naming it for early Texas Statesman Abner Lipscomb. Appoximately ten years later, J.W. Arthur settled in this vicinity and built a wood and sod structure that he used as a general store and post office, which he named Lipscomb. The community that grew around the Lipscomb post office soon developed into the county's seat of government. By 1887, when infant Fred Mehlhop was buried here, the community had formally established Lipscomb Cemetery. His is the fist marked grave, although unmarked graves exist that may predate his burial. Among those interred here are the first Lipscomb County Judge, Tom Connell, as well as other county officals, schoolteachers, ranchers, farmers, and military veterans. An early windmill and storage tank provided water to the site. Over the years, the community met annually for cleanings and decoration days, but today Lipscomb County maintains the burial ground, which is a tie to the area's early settlers and their efforts to develop the northeastern Texas panhandle beginning in the late 19th century. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005