View Point Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way out in Lipscomb County, early in the twentieth century, a group of Quakers decided this stretch of Texas was the right place to put down roots. They called their settlement View Point.

And if you're picturing a quiet, purposeful community of folks who took their commitments seriously, well, you're probably on the right track. Because they didn't waste much time getting organized. By 1910, the residents had stood up the View Point Friends Church, and right alongside it, they established this cemetery.

A place for the living, and a place for those who would not remain among them. A man named C.A. Dickenson donated the land for that burial ground.

That's the kind of gesture that anchors a community to a place, the kind that gets remembered. And sure enough, it didn't take long before the cemetery received its first marked burial. That was Marvel Rutz, who died in 1912.

Many of the folks laid to rest here over the years were members of that Friends Church, or relatives of members. But the cemetery opened its arms wider than that, serving residents from the surrounding area as well. The settlement of View Point may have faded from the map in most practical senses, but this cemetery is still here.

Still tended. Still a reminder, as the marker puts it, of that early community. Some places leave a building.

Some leave a name on a road sign. View Point left a burial ground, and that turns out to be a way of lasting that's harder to argue with than most.

What the marker says

In the early years of the 20th century, a group of Quakers established the settlement of View Point. Shortly afterwards, in 1910, residents organized the View Point Friends Church and this cemetery to serve residents of the community. C.A. Dickenson donated land for the burial ground. The first marked burial was of Marvel Rutz, who died in 1912. Many of those buried here were church members or relatives of members, though the cemetery also served residents in the surrounding area. Today, the cemetery continues to be a reminder of the early community of View Point. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005