Plemons Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at Plemons Cemetery tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, most ghost towns just fade out quiet — a few boards, some wind, and not much else left to argue over. Plemons, Texas gave it more of a fight than that.

It started about 1898, when a rancher named James A. Whittenburg built himself a dugout house in a hill overlooking a bend in the Canadian River — about seven miles northeast of where that cemetery marker stands today. Out of that humble beginning, a town took shape, and it was named for Barney Plemons, son of William Buford Plemons, an Amarillo judge and State Legislator.

That's the kind of name that carries some weight before the first nail is even driven. When Hutchinson County was organized in the spring of 1901, Plemons was chosen as the county seat. That same year, a man named E.

E. Akers contracted to build a brick courthouse — and if you're paying attention, you'll want to remember that name, because it comes back around in a moment, the way important names always do in a story like this. According to local oral history, Mrs.

E. E. Akers was the first person interred in the Plemons Cemetery, probably in 1902.

Nobody wrote it down in a way that survived, so for a long time it was just a thing people remembered and passed along. We'll come back to that too. The town grew, but slowly.

It was a river crossing town — the kind of place that depends on traffic moving through rather than settling in. By 1905, Plemons had itself a wagon yard, a barbershop, a doctor's office, a drugstore, and a mercantile store, and about fifteen families calling it home. Among those who put down roots there was William Dixon — known as Billy — a former buffalo hunter, scout, and Hutchinson County's first Sheriff.

Billy Dixon and his family operated a hotel for three years. That is a man who had already lived several lifetimes before he ever checked anybody in. For a while, things held together.

The county had its seat, its courthouse, its little commercial row, its hotel with some history behind the front desk. And then came 1926. The Amarillo branch of the Rock Island Line was completed through the area that year.

Railroads don't ask permission, and this one stopped in Stinnett — not Plemons. Voters chose Stinnett as the new county seat, and just like that, the current shifted. Plemons began its long, gradual decline.

What kept it breathing a little longer was oil. The new county oil boom carried the town for another two decades. But eventually even that wasn't enough, and the town let go.

The last burial in the Plemons Cemetery was Charles Ray Sessions, interred in 1953. That cemetery holds sixty-six graves in all — sixty-six lives woven into Hutchinson County's earliest chapters. Now here's where the story gets one final, quietly remarkable turn.

In 1987, local Boy Scouts working on cemetery preservation efforts uncovered a sandstone grave marker. It read, simply, "Mrs. E.

E. A." Three initials carved in stone, waiting out the decades. That small marker lent significant credence to the oral history accounts that Mrs.

Akers — wife of the courthouse builder — was indeed the first person laid to rest in that ground. Someone remembered. Someone always remembered.

And eventually, the stone confirmed it. Sixty-six graves. One sandstone marker with three letters.

A whole county's beginning, right there in the bend of the Canadian River.

What the marker says

The town of Plemons was settled about 1898 when James A. Whittenburg, an area rancher, built a dugout house in a hill overlooking a bend in the Canadian River about seven miles northeast of this site. The town was named for Barney Plemons, son of Amarillo judge and State Legislator William Buford Plemons, and when Hutchinson County was organized in Spring 1901, Plemons was chosen county seat. E. E. Akers contracted to build a brick courthouse in that year. According to local oral history accounts, Mrs. E. E. Akers was the first to be interred in the Plemons Cemetery, probably in 1902. Plemons experienced slow growth as a river crossing town. By 1905 a wagon yard, barbershop, doctor's office, drugstore and mercantile store formed a business base for about fifteen families. Former buffalo hunter, scout and Hutchinson County's first Sheriff William (Billy) Dixon and his family operated a hotel for three years. The Amarillo branch of the Rock Island Line was completed through the area in 1926, stopping in Stinnett instead of Plemons. Voters chose Stinnett as the new county seat and Plemons gradually declined. The new county oil boom kept the town going for another two decades. The last burial in the Plemons Cemetery, which includes 66 graves, was that of Charles Ray Sessions, interred in 1953. In 1987 cemetery preservation efforts by local Boy Scouts uncovered a sandstone grave marker reading "Mrs. E. E. A.," lending significant credence to the oral history accounts that Mrs. Akers was the first to be interred on this site. The Plemons Cemetery serves as a chronicle of early Hutchinson County history. (1999)