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Eldridge Cemetery
Photo courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Eldridge, located
at the forks of North McClellan Creek and McCellan Creek, was named
after a Colonel Eldridge, stationed at nearby Fort
Elliot. The site was first used as a cantonment supply depot for
the Army during the Red River Wars. The first settler lived in a dugout
working as a line-rider for the U-U Ranch. Barton and Wynne built
a horse ranch on the creek and a mail coach stop was established in
about 1888.
Several dugouts were used by travelers at the forks of the creeks
in Elfin Grove where the mail coach stop was located. Periodic
flooding forced a move one-half mile North to a meadow alongside North
McCellan Creek.
Eventually, a U.S. Post Office opened in March 1886. A blacksmith
shop and officer's quarters were built along with several tents, dugouts
and a shed-stable for the mounts of the officers. After the Indians
were removed from the area, all military operations were halted. |
Shelton Tombstone
Photo courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
The Eldridge
Cemetery
was established in 1888. Several earlier burials were thought to have
been made, but the earliest tombstone is marked 1890 for Janie Woods
Shelton, the wife of trail driver Joe Shelton who later became post
master. Mysteriously, three-year old O.L. Owen was buried in 1892
with the grave marked with a re-cycled tombstone.
In 1874 Johnson Wartham, a Confederate War Veteran, was buried after
dying from Typhoid Fever. Tennie Cupell died in childbirth in 1896,
but the baby lived. A twelve-year-old girl, name unknown, was buried
in 1896 after dying from a rattlesnake bite suffered while riding
on the wagon tongue of their covered wagon. The family camped on the
creek for days gathering small white rocks for the grave and planting
two cedar trees. |
"Johnson
Wartham
Confederate War Veteran Died of Typhoid Fever
1894"
Photo courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
"Tennie
Cupell
1898
Died in Childbirth"
Photo courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
Prairie fire
destroyed the wooden grave markers in the 1920s leaving some burial
sites without markings. Two caskets were removed to the Alanreed Cemetery
in 1919. Local citizens keep the cemetery clean, built a few crosses
for known graves and erected a metal sign for the entrance.
Today, Eldridge is all on private lands but is viewable to the public
from the highway if you know where to look. The cemetery is open to
the public on County Road X.
© Delbert
Trew |
More Eldridge
Cemetery scenes
Photo courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
| Photo
courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
"Unknown"
Photo
courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
"Freeman
Texas Traildriver Killed in Kansas
1891"
Photo
courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
| Photo
courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
"Lewis
Texas Traildriver Killed in Kansas
1891" |
| Photo
courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
| Photo
courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
| Photo
courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
Alanreed's
Eldridge Cemetery
Photos courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
Photographers'
Notes:
"I recently
visited Eldridge Cemetery near Alanreed.
It was hard to find and very overgrown, but after climbing through
the high weeds, it was worth it. Although I started with new batteries
in my camera, I had only managed to get these few photos when the
camera announced low batteries. I'd like to share them with you
for Alanreed
and Eldridge pages." - Dan Guthrie, September 22, 2008
"Dan Guthrie's
did a great job covering the Eldridge Cemetery. Mr. Trew doesn't
mention that he is one of the main (maybe the only) caretakers of
the cemetery, locating many of its graves." - Barclay
Gibson, March 02, 2013
Editor's Note:
A salute to the people who are maintaining the Eldridge cemetery,
thus insuring that those interred are not forgotten. Although the
details of their lives have been reduced to a few short words, those
simple epitaths reveal the brevity and fragility of life on the
19th Century Texas
Panhandle.
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Historical Marker:
FM 291 R.O.W., 4 1/2 miles N of Alanreed
Eldridge Post
Office
The first post
office in Gray County, Eldridge was established on March 20, 1886.
The locality was first called Elfin Grove, but the post office was
never known by that name. The new facility spared area ranchers a
20-mile ride to Mobeetie to pick up mail. Eldridge Post Office moved
in 1888 one mile north of its original site to a spot 1/2 mile west
of this location. It stood near a blacksmith shop on McClellan Creek.
About 1902 the post office moved several miles south to the railroad,
where Eldridge became Alanreed.
1978 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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