Mt. View Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Out in rural Coleman County, at the base of a place called Robinson's Peak, there is a piece of ground that has been holding onto the stories of West Texas families since 1891. That's where Mt.

View Cemetery sits, and it has been doing its quiet work for a long, long time. A man named G. William Baker donated the land, and the families of that area built themselves a school, Mount View School, right there in that stretch of country.

And when neighbors began to pass on, as neighbors do, a cemetery grew up near that schoolhouse, the way these things tend to happen in rural places, naturally, out of necessity, out of grief. The oldest marked grave belongs to Martha C. Baker, who died in 1891, the same year the cemetery was established.

You sit with that a moment. The land, the school, the first grave, all of it coming together in a single year. More than three hundred and twelve identified graves are there now.

A hundred and thirty-two of those individuals were born before 1900, pioneers, early settlers, people who shaped what Coleman County became. For a long stretch, the cemetery carried on without any formal organization. Then in 2005, a cemetery association was created.

The very next year, 2006, a pavilion was built near the entry gate, the land was legally designated as a cemetery, and additional acreage was acquired. Someone looked at that old ground, all those names and dates and West Texas families, and decided it deserved to be kept properly. At the base of Robinson's Peak, they're still keeping it.

What the marker says

This cemetery was established in 1891 on land donated by G. William Baker at the base of Robinson's Peak in rural Coleman County. Families in the area built a new school called Mount View School. Upon the death of local residents, a cemetery was created near the schoolhouse. The oldest marked grave is that of Martha C. Baker, who died in 1891. Many of the families buried here were early pioneers and represent the history of the area. There are currently 312 identified graves at Mt. View, with 132 individuals born before 1900. In 2005, a cemetery association was created. In 2006, a pavilion was built near the entry gate, the land was legally designated as a cemetery and additional acreage was acquired.