John Sibilsky

December 10th, 2014

Archaeology of Death

Watson

Estacado Cemetery

Nestled amongst the cotton fields at the end of that dirt road where you’ll find the

remnants of a dream, and a white gate proudly parading the name of a town that no

longer exists. The Estacado Cemetery is located 25 miles north east of Lubbock, and

while technically in the town of Lorenzo, Texas, it is the final resting place to some 149

people; most of whom lived and died in the city of Estacado. The cemetery is surrounded

by barbed wire fencing on three sides, and the west facing entrance bears a white fence

and gate with a historical marker located off to the right. Upon entering the cemetery it

has little landscaping or infrastructure with the predominant feature being the two parallel

sets of trees running west to east directly though the center of the cemetery, and while it

was not completely forsaken; the grass was cut and there were signs of headstone repair,

there was not any apparent forethought into the locations of any of the other trees or

shrubbery.

The organization of Estacado Cemetery shares similar qualities to that of the

infrastructure and landscaping. There were obvious attempts at some organization within

the cemetery as there was a general layout of rows laid out from north to south generally

containing one or two families per each row and the trees running along the center

dividing the rows with no correlation with style of grave. There was no apparent

organization to where families were placed and in some cases the older graves of

members of these families would be separated from the area in which the rest family is

located, so one could conclude that there was no original plan for the cemetery layout but

with time the cemetery became more organized and most of the graves were then located

amongst their families in specific rows; as can be seen in the overhead view of the

cemetery with the names of each family indicating their specific area within in the

cemetery as provided below. The oldest graves in the cemetery belonged to that of Dr.

Alphus Dyer - 1886, Mattie G. Ellis - 1886, the Son of Gideon and Aseneth B. Cox –

1888, and the founder of Estacado; Paris Cox – 1888, whose grave is located at the very

front of the Cemetery. The cemetery did not exhibit in sort of organization in regards to

the age of the graves, as the grave of Alphus Dyer was located towards the very east end

of the cemetery, and Paris Cox’s was located at the very west end, and graves ranging

from the late 20th century to 2014 were sporadically located through out with no obvious

chronological organization; which can also be seen in another overhead view of the

cemetery with the location of the 4 oldest graves being labeled and the newest grave

being indicated by the single red point.

While this cemetery did contain all traditional types of headstones, there were

some obvious trends that were quite evident after examining every headstone within the

cemetery. One of the more obvious trends was pertaining to the use of the obelisk

headstone due to the frequent use during the late 19th century and early 20th century, and

while it was popular amongst both genders and all of the various families within the

cemetery the popularity drastically decreased around 1910, one of the latest examples

belonging to A.J. McCoy - 1943; a man with seemingly no correlation with anyone else

in the cemetery and the latest use of an obelisk by 23 years.

Another common characteristic amongst some of the earlier headstones

was the adornment of either a statue or etching of a lamb atop the grave,

specifically those belonging to infants and young children. Infant mortality was

very common in this cemetery especially with certain families and there were

multiple examples of the use of the lamb and each was used for a child or infant.

Though it was relatively popular symbol in the late 19th and early 20th century the

use of symbol decreased drastically with the latest example I could find belonging

to Calvin Cadwell – 1915.

Other than the use of the lamb, another reoccurring adornment to the headstones

during the late 19th century was the use of hands atop the headstone; whether it is an

obelisk, tablet, or block style. The hands would either be displayed as if they were

clasped in prayer, pointing upwards towards the sky, or two hands shaking; all an evident

reference towards their faith and their views of the after life. The use of hands was a

common occurrence in the 1880-90’s but there was only one example of this style in the

cemetery later than 1900.

The frequency of military related headstones in this cemetery was rather

surprising considering the size of the cemetery. There were around 10 graves in the

cemetery that incorporated their military service onto the headstone; generally listing the

war that they had served in and their rank. There was no correlation between the time of

their death and their military service upon them choosing to recognize it on their

headstone considering the wars that were represented in the cemetery were from World

War I to the Korean War. Another interesting stylistic aspect of these graves with the

frequent use of the block headstones for those who had served, especially considering

that later in the 20th century the popularity of these block style headstones seemed to be

losing popularity amongst the rest of population of the Estacado Cemetery excluding

those with military service.

The use of nicknames on the headstones was something rather interesting due to

the fact that the earliest example of this was that of W.L. (Guad) Bryant – 1959. Now

after 1959 the frequency of nicknames upon the headstones increases and you see them

ranging from nicknames pertaining to their occupation, and those also within their family

unit. Although the earliest example of a nickname found in this cemetery was in 1959,

there were continually examples of this upon headstones into the 21st century.

The conclusion that one can infer in regards to the over all evolution of the

headstones found in the Estacado Cemetery was that over the span of 128 years is that

there is a slight secularization of the burial cultural. With the obvious Christian diction

and symbols; such as the lamb and hands, adorning the headstones occurring rather

frequently in the later 19th and early 20th centuries, you see it reducing in popularity very

rapidly, and the development of more emphasis on the personal aspects of the lives of

those who are buried; examples being military references and nicknames. So in turn, one

can conclude that while there is still an obvious religious aspect in the culture of the

people of Estacado there is also a shift in the emphasis from dying seen as more of

merciful act with God and Christianity to more of a celebration of the life.

The cultural identity of those buried in the cemetery can easily be inferred,

especially considering the history of the town itself. Estacado was founded in 1878 by

Paris Cox; an Indiana Quaker, who bought the land with the intentions of establishing a

Quaker Colony and decided to do it West Texas, based on the fact the land cheap, vast,

and secluded. Even though the colony failed after just one winter, the population that

continued to flow into Estacado was white, Christian, and relatively well off. The

cemetery is full of religious symbolism of which I’ve already discussed, and is littered

with Free Mason symbolism; including the oldest headstone found, there is only one

grave belonging to anyone with a non-typical white Anglo-Saxon name, a 14-year-old

boy named Francis Gutirrez who died in October 1929. Although, I would on conclude

that the people who originally came to Estacado were well off considering the size of the

headstones and the masonic symbolism, I would argue that now the population is much

poorer and or the wealth is not a well distributed as it was when the land was originally

settled amongst the families buried within the cemetery due to the fact that certain

families maintain the quality of headstones would expect especially when examining the

headstones of their past family members but other families the quality of the headstones

decreases and one could infer that they do not have the affluence that they once had.

Although I discussed the interpretation of death earlier in my paper, the changing

of epitaphs is also a good example of the secularization of the burial practice or at least

shows a more stressed emphasis on the life of the person instead of the stressed emphasis

on the fact that your praying that your soul is in the hands of a merciful god. As time goes

on especially post World War II, you begin to see the shift from strictly religious based

epitaphs to epitaphs pertaining to the person’s life, and even though I cannot conclude on

a specific reason for this shift I can recognize the shift happening. For example, on the

grave Ida Parish(1918), her epitaph reads, “We trust our loss shall be her gain and with

Christ she has gone to reign,” and in another example of the stressed religion in death is

the grave of C.K. Kelsey(1915), “Another Gem in the Savior’s Crown Another Soul in

Heaven.” These epitaphs are examples of the importance of religion in the burial

practices of those in Estacado in the early 20th century and how to them death was viewed

as a celebration or with stressed emphasis on them returning to Christ and them taking

comfort and understanding in the fact that they are in Heaven and do not infer anything

about their lives other than their faith. Later in the 20th century, we begin to see the shift

in emphasis in regards to the lives that these people have lived, and for example the

epitaph of Traci Elaine Young (1963) it reads, “She’d only just begun to live,” and in the

epitaph of Miss Valley Sue Wilmeth (2008) it reads, “She done the best she could,” and

while albeit neither are the most positive reflections on somebody’s life, you can

recognize the shift in the fact that people were not merely recognizing the religious

aspects of their death and afterlife but they begin reflecting upon the lives they had lived

or in Traci’s case just begun to live.

One of the most interesting characteristics of this cemetery was that it felt as if

you were walking about personal family cemeteries and you could see the generations of

each family as the evolved over 120 years for the Estacado Cemetery has an abundance

of family plots to which I alluded to earlier in the paper. There are about 10 major

families represented in the cemetery but there is also many other families were there was

only 3 or 4 members represented but it was more common to have 5 or 6 representatives

for a family. In this cemetery it was actually uncommon for there to be only one person

with that last name represented in the cemetery. Most of the families have representation

in the cemetery from the late 19th or early 20th Century, and some of them like the Bryant

Family, the Fox Family, and the Wilmeth family continue to have burials in the cemetery

as recently as the 21st century. The family members were located next to each other and it

was typical for married couples to share a headstone, and the while all in their headstones

for each family have their own individual row or area, and while one family did have a

raised cement slab, other than that the families sort of blend together and there is not any

sort of infrastructural segregation between families.