Brad Cemetery

Brad took its name from its founder, Bradford Fitzgerald, and stayed a crossroads on US 180 and State Highway 16 west of Mineral Wells. In 1940 it had twenty-eight residents and three stores. After the Possum Kingdom dam, the Handbook of Texas says, Brad became one of the entry points to the lake and its recreation. A Fitzgerald is among the trustees named in 1929, though the plaque does not say whether the family is the founder's. By 2000 the town itself had sixteen people.

What the plaque says

Brad Cemetery According to local tradition, a young girl died as her family traveled past Thomas Lindsey's land in the 1870s. A short time later, Lindsey buried his sister near the girl's grave. The earliest marked grave is that of Tump Mapes (June-October 1877). The Lindsey Cemetery was deeded to William and Ada Graves in 1911, shortly after the site became known as Ioni Cemetery. In 1929 the land was conveyed to trustees Cozby, Fitzgerald, and Slemmons; it became known as Brad Cemetery in the 1940s. The cemetery association was incorporated in 1973. With more than 400 graves, the cemetery continues to serve the people of the area. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway — 25 mi
  A Cross Timbers park on the old Camp Wolters grounds, built around a 1922 water-supply lake for a spa town, with Penitentiary Hollow's rock climbing and a 20-mile trailway.
• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 31 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.

More markers nearby

• Palo Pinto County — 8.5 mi
• Palo Pinto Cemetery — 9.8 mi
• Morris Sheppard Dam and Possum Kingdom Lake — 10.0 mi
• Courthouses of Palo Pinto County — 10 mi