Old Wink Cemetery

Wink, Texas

From Wink, take Farm Road 1232 just past Monument Draw. Turn right onto Winkler County Road 201 for about 1/4 of a mile. The cemetery was on the right side of the road in a depression. There is a list of known burials below.

Old Wink Cemetery Has Been Lost Under Drifting Sand and Water

from the article ...

Someone, years back, stole the marker. When it was recovered, it was placed here in the museum. The marker has never been returned to out where the old cemetery is. According to the old timers in Wink, the cemetery is located in the Monument Draw. Although it is dry now, back during the 1950-60s, it was flooded with oil field runoff water and the area was underwater for over 10 years. Several of the Wink residents remember fishing and hunting here.

The cemetery is located north of Farm Road 1232.

Just past the Monument Draw,

turn right onto Winkler County Road 201.

Proceed about 1/4 mile.

Right side of the road, down in the valley is where the cemetery was located.

This area was covered for many years with salt water - notice the salt residue on the ground

It is the burial site of 26 persons who died during the early days of the oil boom, 1926-1929.

Shifting sands over the years have erased all vestiges of the graves.

"We carved not a line,
and we raised not a stone,
but we left him alone ..." Wolfe.

There are no current signs of the cemetery. Today, it is part of a local ranch

The marker has now been placed at the corner of CR 201 and FM 1232.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes/Inscriptions
Robert Alexander	1897	10 Dec 1927	African American trucker for oil camp. He had lived there two months. Died of a brain concussion and alcoholism after about one week.
Bessie Fendricks Banks	12 Aug 1895	1 May 1938	Divorced African American. She had lived in the area for nine years and died of peronitis from a ruptured bladder. Sepsis and aneuryism of the aorta. Informant was Versa George of Goldsmith, Texas.
Bobbie Lee Dubbs	8 Oct 1927	22 Jun 1928	Daughter of Herbert Livingston and Florence Dubbs of Antoine, Arkansas. She had been in the area two months and died of dysentery.
Sam Frame	1864	19 Dec 1927	He was a widowed miner and was asthmatic.
C B Herron	1893	21 Jan 1928	An oil field worker who died of pneumonia.
George Henry Hogan	2 Apr 1927	5 Mar 1928	died of pneumonia
Edward Howard	1898	27 Apr 1929	African American, married and worked as a barber. He was stabbed in the stomach.
Mackey Jester Jr.	11 Apr 1927	29 Jul 1928	died of whooping cough
Jeraldine Leigh	14 Apr 1926	25 Dec 1927	died of croup, daughter of Willie E and Annie Mae Holland Leigh
Betty Jean Mason	19 Aug 1928	19 Aug 1928	stillborn daughter of George F. Mason and Lucille Ussery
Herbert Clarence McMillan	15 Apr 1928	25 Jun 1928	son of Claude Terry McMillian
John J Proctor Jr.	8 Jan 1893	3 Jul 1928	died of pneumonia following a septacosis infection on his back
James Sheehy	1 Apr 1882	18 Jun 1928	Chef and cafeman who died of uremic poisoning after a ruptured bladder.
Herbert Irving Smith	15 Apr 1869	27 Jan 1928	a pipeline worker who died of alcohol poisoning
G Soto	1891	11 Jan 1929	Died at the emergency hospital of influenza and bronchial pneumonia. No other information.
Edith Ferin? Taylor	10 May 1928	3 Jul 1928	daughter of James Henry and Ora Proctor Taylor, died of cholera
William Wells	1856	1 Jun 1928	an oil field worker who died of unknown causes