Morton Memorial Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Out here on the South Plains, where the land stretches flat and the sky goes on forever, there is a place called Morton Memorial Cemetery, and its story begins the way so many Texas stories do: with a family just passing through. The year was 1923.

A traveling family made camp on this very ground, the kind of stopover you don't plan and don't forget. Their baby became ill. And then the baby died.

So they buried that child right there, in the earth where they had camped, and they moved on carrying a grief no road could outrun. That was the beginning. One small grave in the Cochran County soil.

Other burials followed, and the ground took on a weight and a purpose that nobody had formally given it yet. Then came 1932, and a man named Morton J. Smith, who owned this land, made a decision.

He deeded ten acres to the city of Morton for cemetery use. Ten acres, signed over, so the place where that traveling family had laid their baby down could become something lasting. A decade later, in 1942, an association was formed, and the cemetery kept growing, through additional land donations and purchases in the years that followed.

By 1977 it had been designated a county facility, which meant the Commissioners Court could levy a cemetery tax, giving this ground the steady, practical support it needed to be cared for properly. Today Morton Memorial Cemetery honors more than three hundred veterans, and it stands as a chronicle of the heritage of Cochran County. What started as a campfire in the night, a family's worst moment, became hallowed ground for a whole community.

That's the kind of story this land holds.

What the marker says

The use of this site as a burial ground began in 1923 when a traveling family camped here and their baby became ill and died. Other burials followed, and in 1932 landowner Morton J. Smith deeded ten acres to the city of Morton for cemetery use. An association was formed in 1942 and the site grew with additional land donations and purchases in subsequent years. It was designated a county facility in 1977, enabling the Commissioners Court to levy a cemetery tax to support the upkeep and maintenance of this hallowed ground that honors more than 300 veterans and is a chronicle of the heritage of Cochran County.