John Sibilsky

December 10th, 2014

Archaeology of Death
Watson
Estacado Cemetery
Nestled amongst the cotton fields at the end of that dirt road where youll 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 Coxs 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 1880-90s 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 Ive 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 persons 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 Saviors 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, Shed 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 somebodys 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 Tracis 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.