Atoka Cemetery 
Novice, Coleman County, Texas
Cemeteries of Texas Coordinator: Dolores I. Bishop

Information provided by the State of Texas Atlas Site

Location:
 From Novice take FM 1770 3 miles west. Turn north onto county road
 and continue about 1 mile to cemetery on the left fork of the road. 

Marker : 
Settlement of this area began in the 1850s with the establishment 
of Camp Colorado, a United States cavalry outpost. At the outbreak 
of the Civil War the camp was occupied by Texas State Troops and 
Texas Ranger units. The existence of the camp spurred permanent 
settlement in the area, and many families moved here from the southern
 United States after the Civil War. The settlers established farms and 
ranches, and the Atoka community included a general store operated 
by D.A. Parker and S.N. Edenborough, a combination church/school
 building, and a cotton gin built by D.A. Parker. This cemetery was 
established in 1880 on land deeded by C.E. Bush. Among the early 
pioneers buried here are the Rev. Hugh Martin Childress, Sr., a former Texas
 Ranger and Republic of Texas soldier; his son, Elisha Childress, who served 
as the first Coleman County sheriff; veterans of the Civil War; and several workers
 killed in an explosion that occurred during the construction of a Santa Fe Railroad 
bridge across Jim Ned Creek in 1910. The cemetery, which is maintained by 
an association of descendants of those buried here, is one of the few physical 
reminders of the Atoka community and its pioneer settlers. (1996)