Valera Cemetery

Valera sits where U.S. 67 meets Farm Road 503, on what was the George P. Cleveland ranch. Santa Fe Railroad officials named it in 1886, and its place on the line gave it a modest prosperity. By 1946 the town had a school, churches, seventeen businesses and about 500 people. After that it declined, and from 1980 through 2000 it counted eighty residents and a post office. The cemetery a mile south of town belongs to that railroad-era Valera.

What the plaque says

Valera Cemetery The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad established a railway line about eight miles southwest of Coleman in 1904. The town of Valera developed in the area around the train depot. Its business district, established parallel to the railroad, reflected the needs of its citizens. Businesses included a post office, a hotel, a bank, a flour mill, a cotton gin, an opera house, grocery stores, a blacksmith shop, a cafe and a water well in the middle of the street. Recognizing the need for a community cemetery, Mrs. Minnie K. Harris deeded more than five acres of land in 1922. One of two cemeteries serving the community, it contains more than 300 marked graves, and at least five unmarked graves. The first recorded burial was that of Mrs. N. C. Kidwell in 1922. Many prominent citizens of the area are buried here, including Dr. H. H. Mitchell (1866-1927) who came to Valera in 1905. The only doctor in town, Dr. Mitchell helped establish the first school, was a deacon in the Baptist church and president of the First State Bank. Also buried here is local law enforcement officer Richard A. Pauly. The cemetery contains burials of veterans from the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 24 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.
• Z. I. Hale Museum and Rock Hotel — 29 mi
  A free museum in a Winters optometrist's office, a 1909 railroad hotel and a 1927 implement dealership, with Rogers Hornsby's hometown memorabilia and a 1912 horse-drawn cotton picker.

More markers nearby

• Richard A. Pauley — steps away
• Centennial School — 4.1 mi
• Western Trail Marker — 9.7 mi
• Robert M. Coleman — 9.7 mi