Molsbee Chapel Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at Molsbee Chapel Cemetery tells it, and I'll do my best to give it its full due. Picture 1888. A reverend by the name of Abraham Molsbee packs up his wife Susan Looney Molsbee and their eight children, leaves Tennessee behind, and points the whole family toward Texas.

They arrive, they put down roots, and they purchase nine hundred and sixty-five acres of land in Montague County for farming and stock raising. Nine hundred and sixty-five acres. That is not a man dabbling.

That is a man committing. But Abraham Molsbee was not just a farmer. He was a minister in the Church of the Brethren denomination, and he did not come to Texas to sit still.

By April of 1889, he and a man named Henry Brubaker had established a church in Nocona. That was just the beginning. Molsbee went on to be instrumental in organizing a number of other congregations throughout northwest Texas.

He did mission work in Williams Creek up in Cooke County, Live Oak in Parker County, Lingleville in Erath County, Pampa in Gray County, Salt Creek right there in Montague County, and he even crossed into the Indian Territory, the land that would later become Oklahoma. The man covered ground. Now, the cemetery.

It began the same year the Molsbees arrived, and it began in grief. Their son Orville, twenty years old, died in 1888. That family plot on the edge of their land became the first marker of what would grow into something much larger.

Other graves followed. The Molsbees' son Robert, just two years old, was buried there in 1895. A neighbor named Wilfred Beck was laid to rest in 1898.

The community took notice of the ground, and over time, people beyond the Molsbee family began to be buried there as well. But here is the thing. For decades, that cemetery was legally private land.

It remained that way until 1942, when a man named David C. Molsbee, who had inherited the land, including that site, from his parents Abraham and Susan, made a decision. He deeded two acres for use as a community burial ground.

A private family's grief, offered out to the whole of the community. A cemetery association was then established in 1971. The ground holds veterans.

Among them are Confederate soldiers John P. Watson of the 43rd Georgia Regiment and Fulton B. Loe, Jr., of Company A28, Louisiana Infantry.

There are also veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam conflict resting there. From a family arriving in Texas in 1888 to a living, working burial ground that still serves the area today, Molsbee Chapel Cemetery is, as the marker puts it, a chronicle of northwest Texas history. Some chronicles are written in ink.

Some are written in stone.

What the marker says

The Rev. Abraham Molsbee and his wife Susan Looney Molsbee brought their eight children to Texas from Tennessee in 1888. They purchased 965 acres of land for farming and stock raising. A minister in the Church of the Brethren denomination, Molsbee and Henry Brubaker established a church in Nocona in April 1889. Molsbee also was instrumental in the organization of a number of other congregations throughout northwest Texas. He did mission work in the communities of Williams Creek in Cooke County, Live Oak in Parker County, Lingleville in Erath County, Pampa in Gray County and Salt Creek in Montague County, as well as in the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). This cemetery, located adjacent to the Molsbee Chapel Church, began as a family graveyard when the Molsbees' 20-year-old son, Orville, died in 1888. Other marked 19th century graves are those of the Molsbees' son Robert, who died at age two in 1895 and a neighbor, Wilfred Beck, who died in 1898. Though the graveyard was used by the community at large, it legally was a private cemetery until 1942, when David C. Molsbee, who inherited the land including this site from his parents Abraham and Susan, deeded two acres for a community burial ground. A cemetery association was established in 1971. Many veterans of the Armed Forces are interred here, among them Confederate soldiers John P. Watson of the 43rd Georgia Regiment and Fulton B. Loe, Jr., of Company A28, Louisiana Infantry. Other veterans include participants in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam conflict. The burial ground continues to serve the area and is a chronicle of northwest Texas history. (2000)