Brownfield Cemetery

Marion Virgil Brownfield, the cattleman whose ownership the plaque notes, is buried here, the Handbook of Texas says. Born in Iowa in January 1854, he trailed herds to Kansas after 1871 and in 1896 leased 100 sections in Terry and Lynn counties with Sam Singleton. On his own fifty-two sections he ran the Saucer Block brand, a half-circle over a square, from headquarters on Lost Draw. The Handbook says he donated land for the community cemetery and in 1909 "drug out" the county's first auto road, to Lamesa. He died after a heart attack on February 11, 1929.

What the plaque says

Brownfield Cemetery The first public burial ground in the new Terry County seat of Brownfield was begun in 1904 when 19-year-old Jessie Hill died and was interred here. By 1907, this land belonged to M. V. Brownfield; records do not indicate whether the cemetery was named for him or for the town. During World War I, the Great Depression and World War II, the cemetery fell into decline as local residents were unable to maintain it. Hispanic farm workers began to settle in this area in the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1970s the cemetery reflected the change in population. A reorganization of the cemetery association in 1980 led to much-needed improvements. More than 2,000 graves, about 375 of them unmarked, graced the cemetery in 1999. The cemetery remains a chronicle of Terry County. (1999)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Brownfield Municipal Power Plant — 0.7 mi
• City of Brownfield — 0.8 mi
• Colonel B. F. Terry and Terry's Texas Rangers — 0.9 mi
• First Baptist Church of Brownfield — 1.0 mi