Ralls Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here on the South Plains, in Crosby County, the town of Ralls has got itself a cemetery with a story that starts, like so many good Texas stories, with a piece of land and a handshake deal. The original five acres were purchased from the C.B.

Livestock Co. on September 7, 1915. Four years after the town of Ralls was founded, somebody decided it was time to set aside ground for those who wouldn't be moving on. Now that's a particular kind of planning, the kind that takes a clear eye and a steady hand.

The first person interred in that cemetery was W.H. Shell, who passed in 1915, the very same year that ground was purchased. So the ink on the deed was barely dry when the cemetery began its purpose.

Some things don't wait. Over the decades, the people of Ralls tended to that place with real intention. In 1963, the Ralls Garden Club erected a Georgia marble Bible on the grounds, one of many beautification projects carried out by local organizations, the Lions Club and the Cemetery Association among them.

Picture that, a Bible carved from Georgia marble standing out among the headstones, the kind of landmark that stops you mid-step. Buried within those five acres are prominent community members, including John R. Ralls himself, the founder of the town that bears his name.

And alongside him and his neighbors rest veterans of several wars, men and women who carried this country's weight on their shoulders and came home, or didn't, to this corner of the Texas plains. A cemetery tells you what a town values. Ralls, it turns out, values its history, its people, and the care of what it leaves behind.

What the marker says

The original five acre tract of land for this burial grund was purchased from the C.B. Livestock Co. on September 7, 1915, four years after the town of Ralls was founded. The cemetery was first used for the interment of W.H. Shell (d. 1915). The Georgia marble Bible, erected in 1963 by the Ralls Garden Club, is one of many beautification projects by local organizations, including the Lions Club and Cemetery Association. Prominent community members are buried here, including John R. Ralls, town founder. Graves also include those of veterans of several wars. 1985