DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the official marker's story, as best as I can tell it for you. Way out in Wheeler County, there's a patch of ground that holds the longest memory in the Texas Panhandle. The Mobeetie Cemetery — the first known established cemetery in the entire Panhandle of Texas.
Let that sit with you a moment. The whole vast stretch of wind and sky that is the Texas Panhandle, and this is where it all began, as far as burying the dead is concerned. It was born of necessity.
That's what the marker says, and that phrase carries some weight if you let it. Mobeetie itself evolved from an 1875 hunter's camp and a nearby army post — and wherever folks are livin' and workin' and scrapping their way through hard country, sooner or later, somebody needs a final resting place. So the cemetery came to be.
Time and weather have not been kind to it. Some of the grave markers have been destroyed — by tornadoes, by natural decay. The Panhandle doesn't apologize for its weather, and never has.
But enough survives that we know things. The oldest gravestone remaining is dated May 2, 1882. That stone has outlasted everything the sky could throw at it.
Now, who rests out there beneath that Panhandle soil? Here's where the story gets layered. There are outlaws.
Accused horse thieves. Ladies of the evening. There are those killed by an 1898 cyclone — souls who didn't see that particular storm coming, or couldn't outrun it.
And there is the infant daughter of Temple Lea Houston, that name carrying its own weight in Texas history, laid to rest in this same ground. And then there is Captain G.W. Arrington — famed Texas Ranger — whose final resting place this also is.
The law and the lawless, side by side under the same Panhandle sky. That's Mobeetie Cemetery for you. First in the Panhandle.
Still standing. Still telling its stories to anyone willing to stop and listen.
What the marker says
Mobeetie Cemetery is the first known established cemetery in the Texas Panhandle. It was born of necessity, established as a final resting place for those whose journey ended in Mobeetie, which evolved from an 1875 hunter's camp and nearby army post. Over the course of time, some of the grave markers have been destroyed by both tornadoes and natural decay. The oldest gravestone remaining is dated May 2, 1882. Other burials include outlaws, accused horse thieves, those killed by an 1898 cyclone, ladies of the evening and the infant daughter of Temple Lea Houston. In addition, it is also the final resting place for the famed Texas Ranger, Captain G.W. Arrington. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2011