Proffitt, Texas Young County ghost town history, Proffitt Cemetery, schoolhouse, church, bridge, photos, vintage map. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

Named after the ranching Proffitt family around 1862 - under the protection of nearby Fort Belknap. John Proffitt donated land for a church that was also a school and Masonic lodge after the Civil War. The Proffitt post office opened in 1880. John Proffitt went into the freighting business and in the mid 1890s he opened a store. In 1925 the post office was closed and mail was routed through Newcastle.

The population remained at only fifty for decades and then increased to 125 in the 1960s. After that unexplained increase, further figures are unavailable.

A church, cemetery and community center are all that remain of the former town.

Proffitt Cemetery

On US 380, 8 miles W of Newcastle

Historical Marker:

Proffitt Cemetery

Members of the Robert Smith Proffitt family came to this area about 1862 and established homes. A son, John Proffitt (1846-1925), amassed large land-holdings and built a gin and other businesses. The developing community was named Proffitt. At its height it boasted homes, a post office, school, retail businesses, a Methodist church, and Baptist church.

On July 17, 1867, three young men were killed in an Indian raid near this site. They were buried in a common grave on John Proffitt's land about one mile south of town. Theirs was the first burial in the community graveyard which became know as the Proffitt Cemetery.

The cemetery contains both marked and unmarked graves of area pioneers. The numerous interments of infants and children illustrate the often harsh conditions of frontier life. The largest number of burials occurred in the years between 1910 and 1920, and include many victims of the World War I-era influenza epidemic. Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.

Maintained by a cemetery association, this historic graveyard stands as memorial to Young County pioneers.

1990

Proffitt Cemetery Historical Marker
Photo Courtesy Dustin Martin, March 2018

Common Grave of 3 young men ambushed by Indians
Photo Courtesy Dustin Martin, March 2018

Historical Marker:

Common Grave

Three youths slain by Indians in an Elm Creek raid, July 17, 1867:

Rice Carlton, Age 19; Reuben Johnson, born 1847, son of J. Allen Johnson;

Patrick Euell Proffitt, born March 7, 1848, son of Robert S. Proffitt. John Proffitt, a brother, was donor of cemetery tract.

1966

Proffitt Cemetery Common Grave Marker
Photo Courtesy Dustin Martin, March 2018

Newcastle/Profitt, Texas Suspension Bridge, Postmarked 1914
Click on image to enlarge
Old postcard courtesy Dan Whatley Collection

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