frank

1855-1891

Since 1891, Frank P. Wise has lain at the top of a small rise about two miles south of the site of the Estacado townsite. Today Estacado, a former thriving town on the plains founded in 1879 by Quakers, is located only by a granite marker and its historic cemetery. From the paved road, one spies the Estacado Cemetery with its remaining century-old bois d'arc trees and double avenue of cedars spiking above the flat cotton fields. A few hundred yards down a turnrow through the fields brings one to the cemetery gate. Frank lies on the eastern edge of the cemetery--a sole Wise with no surrounding family. The 1890 census lists him as "laborer stock ranch." But someone cared enough to erect a cast-iron picket fence around Frank's plot. In the 1880s, such fences served dual purposes of marking the gravesite and protecting it from animals such as wandering cattle.

County Road 3900

Lubbock County, Texas