FIRST- Caretaker & Burial in Fairmont Cemetery - Lipscomb County, TX
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member YoSam.
N 36° 28.689 W 100° 06.999
14S E 399968 N 4037563
There was once a town here, but it moved, south, to the railroad tracks.
Waymark Code: WMTGKE
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/22/2016
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member Dunbar Loop
Views: 1

County of cemetery: Lipscomb County
Location of Marker: FM-1454, 1 mile E. of Follett, then 3 miles N. of TX-15
Marker erected by: Texas Historical Commission - Historica Texas Cemetery
Date marker erected: 2006

Marker Text

FAIRMONT CEMETERY
 This burial ground serves citizens near the northern tip of Texas at a site closer to capitals of six others states than it is to Austin. In 1901, area settlers established Ivanhoe, OK., eight miles to the north. That town moved two miles in 1909 to a site on Beaver Valley and Northwestern Railway, changing its name to South Ivanhoe and leaving behind only the Methodist church building. Eight years later, citizens moved again, this time across the state line to a spot on the North Texas and Santa Fe Railway built from Shattuck, OK. to Spearman, TX. Beginning in December 1917, all the buildings of South Ivanhoe, including a hotel and a bank, were put on skids and dragged to the new townsite. The settlement, named for railroad engineer Horace Follett, got its post office in 1918.

  Dr. Charles and Ora White owned land in South Ivanhoe and at this site, deeding land for Fairmont Cemetery in 1910, even before the establishment of Follett. The first burial was the reinterment of Myra Jones, a mother of six, who was killed by lighting in 1904 and originally buried at the Gigger Ranch. Her widowed husband, Michael "Uncle Mac" Jones, was the cemetery's first caretaker. In the 1920s, Frederick Harhausen and his two sons hauled more than 200 cedar trees from near Vici, OK. (40 mi. SE), planting them on the perimeter and in a circle in the center of the cemetery. The outlining trees remain among the cemetery's most distinctive landscape features.

  Those buried here include the children of Mexican railroad workers who died during the influenza epidemic of 1918. More than 100 military veterans, three of whom were killed in action in World War II, are also interred here. The Fairmont Cemetery Association, founded in 1909, cares for the cemetery.

FIRST - Classification Variable: Item or Event

Date of FIRST: 06/03/1904

More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:

As a suggestion for your visit log, please make every effort to supply a brief-to-detailed note about your experience at the Waymark. If possible also include an image that was taken when you visited the Waymark. Images can be of yourself, a personal Waymarking signature item or just one of general interest that would be of value to others. Sharing your experience helps promote Waymarking and provides a dynamic history of your adventures.

Search for...
Geocaching.com Google Map
Google Maps
MapQuest
Bing Maps
Nearest Waymarks
Nearest First of its Kind
Nearest Geocaches
Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point
Recent Visits/Logs:
There are no logs for this waymark yet.