Pearce Chapel-Strip Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Pearce Chapel-Strip Cemetery, out in Hale County, Texas. Now, most landmarks have a building, or a bridge, or at least a good-looking tree to point to. This one has a cemetery, and that's it.

Everything else is gone. But we'll get to that. The story starts with the land itself.

A strip. Not a figurative strip, a literal one, one and a half miles wide and fifteen miles long, opened to homesteaders back in the 1890s. The community that put down roots there took its name straight from that geography, plain and simple.

The Strip Community. In 1895, a man named William Houston Pearce rode into the area. He was born in 1844, and he had the kind of energy that turns raw prairie into something.

He started a school. People called it Round-Top, or they called it Strip, depending on who you asked. Either way, small groups started gathering there to worship, the way folks do when a schoolhouse is the only roof for miles.

One of those gatherings eventually formed into something lasting: Pearce Chapel Methodist Church. Now, a community needs more than a church and a school. It needs a place to put its dead.

A man named F. E. Andrews, born in 1857, gave a tract of land for a cemetery in 1898.

And late that same year, Andrews himself became the first person buried there. That is the kind of detail that sits with you a while. Life kept moving on the Strip.

The post office opened in 1904, with Postmaster Jerry W. Turner handling the mail right out of his own home. In 1906, a Union Church went up near the cemetery.

The land for it was purchased by public subscription in 1907 to clear the title. Then in 1910, the Strip Post Office closed, after postal service became available over in Abernathy. One by one, the pieces of the community drifted away.

The school building, moved to Lakeview. The church building, same story, moved in succeeding years. What was left standing on that narrow strip of land was the cemetery, still in use, still receiving the community it had always kept.

By 1973, one hundred and eighty graves. Among them, war veterans. Two Confederate soldiers rest here: James E.

Fitzgerald and William Houston Pearce, the very man who started the school back in 1895, born in 1844 and gone in 1926. Three veterans of the First World War: George W. Fitzgerald, George Harkness, and Leroy Mahagan.

Three veterans of the Second World War: Thomas L. Goldston, Harvey Shelby Pittman, and John Fred Sherman. The buildings are gone.

The post office is gone. The community that named itself after a strip of earth has scattered into history. But the cemetery is still there, still doing what it was always meant to do, out on that thin slice of Hale County ground, holding on to the names.

What the marker says

The only landmark of the Strip Community, named for its location on a 1.5 by 15-mile strip of land opened to homesteaders in the 1890s. William Houston Pearce (1844-1926) moved into the area in 1895 and started a school, called "Round-Top", or "Strip". Small groups began to worship in the schoolhouse, and one congregation formed Pearce Chapel Methodist Church. F. E. Andrews (1857-1898) gave a cemetery tract in 1898, and late that year his was the first grave. Strip Post Office opened in 1904 with Postmaster Jerry W. Turner handling the mail in his home. In 1906, a Union Church was built near the cemetery site, which was purchased by public subscription in 1907, in order to clear the title. In 1910 the Strip Post Office closed after service was made available in Abernathy. The school and church buildings were moved to Lakeview in succeeding years, but this cemetery continues to be used. By 1973 it had 180 graves. War veterans buried here include two Confederate soldiers, James E. Fitzgerald and William Houston Pearce; World War I veterans George W. Fitzgerald, George Harkness, and Leroy Mahagan; World War II veterans Thomas L. Goldston, Harvey Shelby Pittman, and John Fred Sherman. 1974