Historical Marker

Thurber Cemetery

Historical marker location:
Thurber, Texas
( from Thurber, take Old SH 108 north .25 miles MARKER REPORTED MISSING 5/8/2009)
Marker installed: 1994

Encompassing slightly more than nine acres, the Thurber Cemetery documents the multi-ethnic Thurber community. The graveyard was divided into three sections with separate entrances: Catholic, Protestant, and African American. There are more than 1,000 graves here, including almost 700 unmarked burials. The oldest tombstone is that of Eva Chapman, an infant who died in 1890. More than half the total graves are those of infants and children, a reflection of such epidemic diseases as scarlet fever, typhoid fever, diphtheria, and whooping cough. (1995).