Resthaven Cemetery

The burial ground has served Quitaque since the 1920s. Quitaque’s name may have come from Quitica Indians who came through this area on a 1683-84 expedition with Juan Mendoza and Juan Sabeata; it may mean “the land at the end of the trail.” In 1865, José Piedad Tafoya opened a trading post in the area. He was followed in 1877 by George Baker, who established the Lazy F Ranch, which he later sold to noted rancher Charles Goodnight. A decade later, Quitaque became a stage stop. In 1890, a general store opened and the next year, a post office was moved from the ranch to the store as residents began to settle in the newly platted town. By 1903, a Methodist church organized. The congregation’s building, constructed in 1908, also served other denominations.

Residents used other area graveyards to bury the deceased until 1922, when brothers Alvin and Edgar Howard donated ten acres for cemetery use. The first person interred in Resthaven Cemetery was Katie Daniel (d. 1922). Others interred here include Amos Persons, who organized First National Bank and was influential in bringing the Ft. Worth and Denver Railroad to Quitaque, and community leaders Orlin and O.R. Stark, father and son, who followed Persons as presidents of the bank and were civic leaders. A sandstone wall with spaced pilasters built from 1938-40 by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) surrounds the property. Other features include grave slabs, curbing and religion iconography. Today, Resthaven Cemetery remains a record of early pioneers whose hard work and determination set the foundation for the Quitaque community.