The Estacado Cemetery is the last vestige of the 19th century community of Estacado that was once the seat of Crosby County. Estacado began as a Quaker colony on the Staked Plains of Texas. Founded in 1878 by Paris Cox, he died about the time that Estacado began to decline. Nevertheless, he never left community that he founded and is buried here in Estacado Cemetery.
His tombstone is engraved as follows:
N side:
Founder of the
Quaker Colony at
Estacado Texas,
in 1879
W Side:
A loving remembrance of
PARIS COX
born in N.C.
Oct. 17, 1846
Died
Nov. 21, 1888
From the Handbook of Texas online: (
visit link)
"COX, PARIS (1846–1888).Paris Cox, founder of Estacado, a Quaker colony in Crosby County, was born near Asheboro, North Carolina, on October 17, 1846, to Gideon and Asenath Cox, who raised their six children with a strong Quaker persuasion. As a young man Cox was drafted by the Confederate States of America to serve in the Civil War. Because of his pacifism, he purchased a legal exemption and moved to Westfield, Indiana, where he met and married Mary C. Ferguson, a young schoolteacher. Cox first went into business with his father-in-law in a sawmill. When the supply of lumber began to dwindle the business suffered, and he sought another opportunity in the West. He joined a group of buffalo hunters and traveled to the Llano Estacado of West Texas. One evening while they were camped above the Caprock west of pioneer Henry C. Smith's house on a hill overlooking a particularly beautiful site, Cox reportedly said, "Here, by the will of God, will be my home." In 1876 he returned to Texas and secured authority to sell land to settlers at twenty-five cents an acre. His colonists became the first settlers on the High Plains of Texas.
In late 1878 Cox revisited the site he had loved. He hired Hank Smith to dig a community well and to break and plant thirty acres of land with various crops in the summer of 1879. In the fall of 1879 Smith wrote that water was found at sixty-five feet and sent samples of good crops he had grown on the thirty-acre Crosby County farm. Encouraged by the news, Cox and his family, then including wife Mary and two sons, and three other families left for the plains. Cox built a sod house at the site. The others decided to live in tents. The winter of 1879 was a severe one, and the early spring brought high winds that blew away the tents and belongings of the other three families, who returned to Indiana. Cox and his family stayed on, planted, cultivated, and harvested excellent crops of corn, oats, millet, sorghum, melons, potatoes, and garden vegetables. A son and daughter were added to their family. Before long several friends and relatives began to arrive in covered wagons. In 1881 Cox persuaded his father and mother to come to the new colony. By the summer of 1882 the settlement comprised ten families.
In 1879 a town was established and named Marietta, in honor of Cox's wife. When the county was organized in 1886, the name was changed to Estacado because the state already had a post office named Marietta. Estacado became the county seat of Crosby County, and ten surrounding counties were attached to the county for judicial purposes. In a general election held on November 2, 1886, Cox was elected district clerk. From 1880 to 1890 the colony flourished. Paris Cox died of throat cancer on November 2, 1888, and was buried in the Estacado Cemetery. See also RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS."
The easiest way to get to Estacado Cemetery is to go US62 East from Lubbock, then turn L onto Lubbock CR 3900. Make a R on a dirt road to the cemetery (look for tall juniper trees). If you get to FM 1527 you have gone too far.
Of course, this was NOT the way Blasterz went - but we got to see nice vineyards, a pheasant, some prairie dogs, and about a million Sandhill Cranes as we circled the cemetery on dirt roads.
The nearby state historical marker reads as follows:
"ESTACADO CEMETERY
In 1878 Paris Cox (1846-1888), an Indiana Quaker, visited this area with a group of buffalo hunters. Attracted by the abundance of cheap farm land, he returned to Indiana and began advertising his plans for a Quaker colony here. Although the first colonists who arrived in 1879 were discouraged by a severe winter, other settlers, including those of various religious beliefs, soon moved to the area. The settlement was first called Maryetta in honor of Cox's wife, but in 1886 it was renamed Estacado, part of the Spanish term for the Staked Plains, Llano Estacado.
When Crosby County was formally organized in 1886, Estacado was chosen as the first county seat. A courthouse was built two years later. The center of a vast agricultural area, Estacado continued to prosper until the 1890s when the county seat was moved to Emma and many of the early colonists began migrating to other areas.
An important reminder of Estacado's pioneers is this community cemetery, the burial site of many early settlers and area leaders, including Paris Cox. Now part of Lubbock County, it serves as a historic record of the individuals who opened the Texas Plains and led in the region's agricultural development.
(1982)"