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Texas
Ghost Town
ELDRIDGE
, TEXAS
by Delbert Trew
First Cemetery in Gray County 1888-89
Second
Settlement in Gray County
Gray County, Texas
Panhandle
Located on Texas FM 291 and County Road X
5 Miles
North of Alanreed, Tx
I-40, Exit 135 |
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 |
"Freeman
Texas
Traildriver Killed in Kansas
1891" |
"Lewis
Texas
Traildriver Killed in Kansas
1891" |
| Alanreed's
Eldridge Cemetery photos courtesy Dan Guthrie, 2008 |
Photographer's
Note:
"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
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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