Slater Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best by the story. Once upon a time, out in Coryell County, there was a place called Slater. A real community, the kind that doesn't just happen overnight.

It formed in the late 1800s, built on farming and ranching, and for a while it was something. Two churches. A post office.

A school. Various businesses. The kind of place where people put down roots and meant it.

By the early 1900s, Slater was, by all accounts, thriving. Now, that word gets thrown around a lot. But two churches and a post office in the same small community?

That's not wishful thinking. That's a town. In 1907, a man named James Martin and his wife Ellen made a decision.

They donated a piece of land, free of charge, to be used as a burial ground for the people of Slater. No strings attached. A gift to the community, the kind you make when you believe a place is going to last.

That same year, their son Curry was buried there. His is the oldest marked grave in the cemetery. There's a weight to that detail, and it's worth sitting with for a moment.

The very ground his parents gave away became the ground where they laid him first. The community around that cemetery eventually faded. The post office, the businesses, the school, the two churches.

Gone. But in 1964, a cemetery association organized and took up the work of caring for that burial ground, and they're still at it. Veterans are buried there.

Landowners. Community leaders. Pioneering families who staked a claim in this part of Texas and made something of it.

Today, Slater Cemetery is all that remains of Slater. The whole story of that thriving community, every name and every season of it, rests right there in that ground.

What the marker says

This cemetery served the once thriving farming and ranching community of Slater, which formed in the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, the community had two churches, a post office, a school and various businesses. In 1907, James and Ellen Martin donated land to be used as a free burial ground for Slater residents. Their son, Curry, was buried that year; his is the cemetery's oldest marked grave. A cemetery association organized in 1964 continues to care for the burial ground. Veterans, landowners and community leaders are among those buried here. Today, it is all that remains of Slater, preserving the record of the pioneering families who settled in this area. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006