​First Cemetery in Potter County

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Marker Text: On the old _X (LX), first ranch in Potter County, established in 1877 by W.H. Bates and D.T. Beals, Boston (Mass.) industrialists. The earliest burials occurred after the LX was sold, 1884, to American Pastoral Land and Cattle Company, a British syndicate.
      First grave was dug for the LX bookkeeper's wife, Mrs. James Wyness, who died in Tascosa on June 15, 1887; six weeks later the newborn son who survived was laid at her side. The infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Charley Mott died in 1888. Second adult buried here was P.O. ("Bunch") McCrary, killed 1890 when his horse fell on him while he was roping a yearling. In 1893 James Bailey, hauling grain from Amarillo, bogged in quicksand in the Canadian; in getting his wagon out, he suffered exposure that brought on a fatal case of pneumonia. A 1902 grave was for James Bell, found dead in a corral with a bridle in his hand.
​          When the syndicate was liquidated, this portion of the ranch was purchased by an early cattleman, R.B. Masterson. John Arnot, one of the original employees of the syndicate, and later a U.S. Government Cattle Brands Inspector, maintained the cemetery until 1945. It is now cared for by Mrs. Mary Masterson Fain, a descendant of third owner of the old ranch land. (1967)

Marker No: 1696

Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker

Geographic: 35.475895, -101.883301

Location: ​From Amarillo, take Highway 287 about 19.5 north; marker is one mile north of Canadian River.