Barclay Cemetery

Barclay's story runs past the cemetery fence. The Handbook of Texas says William Anderson Barclay and his brother-in-law W. S. G. Wilson ran the Barclay Ranch where Bell, Falls and Milam counties meet, and that Barclay cleared and farmed 3,500 acres in the late 1890s. A school district began in 1882 on land from Paul and Katherine Pieper. The community hosted the first Corn Club in Falls County, later the 4-H Club. After the Depression its people voted a bond for a new school, built with Work Projects Administration labor, which became the community center.

What the plaque says

Barclay Cemetery The town of Barclay was founded in 1877 when William Anderson Barclay (1849-1927) opened a General Mercantile store here. A leader in farming, business, commercial and industrial circles throughout central Texas, W. A. Barclay also operated a large horse and cattle ranch nearby and was appointed the town's first postmaster in 1881. As more settlers moved into the area, the need for a church and cemetery became evident. In 1881 pioneer Lyddleton Smith of Washington County assigned three acres of land for a Baptist Church. The congregation that was organized became known as Beulah (later Barclay) Baptist Church, and its members set aside part of the property for a burial ground. Barclay Cemetery, with its oldest grave dating from 1882,has been enlarged several times over the years. Confederate veteran Paul Pieper (1849-1914), who moved his family to the town in 1882, donated part of his acreage for additional burial grounds in 1886 and deeded more land to the cemetery upon his death. The graveyard has been maintained by the Barclay Cemetery Association since 1915. In use for more than 100 years, the burial ground remains an important part of the history of this community. (1983)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 14 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 17 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Calvert — 27 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Mother Neff State Park — 28 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.

More markers nearby

• Farmers Mutual Protective Association of Texas (RVOS) — 1.6 mi
• Homesite of Theodore Rabroker — 2.2 mi
• Church of the Visitation — 3.4 mi
• Westphalia Little School — 3.4 mi