Black Cemetery

This pioneer burial ground contains more than a dozen graves of African Americans. The land was part of the Veals addition to the town of Fort Griffin. Milton Sutton bought the property at public auction in April 1882. Two visible markers are for Elijah Earls (d. 1880), who the Fort Griffin Echo reported as a “tonsorial artist,” or barber, and Marriah McKay Williams (1781-1891), who came to Fort Davis (Stephens co.) Before the Civil War as a free black. The Echo also reported the June 1880 burial of James Lowe in this cemetery. Most of the other burials are unknown. When Fort Griffin disbanded, many African Americans stayed nearby and homesteaded. Here, their lives as ranchers, farmers, cowboys and domestics are remembered.