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BREEZE (DIBRELL COW) GRAVE, COLEMAN COUNTY, TEXAS
This is one of the most unusual stones in the county, as it marks the grave of a cow. It is located in a pasture, just west of the dirt road about one-half mile north of the Camp Colorado Cemetery.
William Carter Dibrell settled in the Camp Colorado area in 1883. He saw the need for improving his Longhorn cattle herd. While on a visit to the Texas State Fair in 1887, he bought four head of registered Hereford cattle from Gudgell and Simpson of Independence, Missouri. Of the four head of registered Hereford purchased, one bull died of tick fever before reaching the ranch and one cow choked to death chewing on a salt sack. The other cow, Breeze, was the base of the Dibrell Hereford herd. The herd grew from Breeze's heifers and new Hereford bulls, carefully selected in a period when registered cattle remained a novelty. None of Breeze's heifer calves were ever sold, always being retained to build up the herd.
The stone was erected after the Dibrell lot at the Coleman Cemetery was "modernized," a new stone being placed for W. C. Dibrell and the old stone being resurfaced, inscribed, and placed on the Dibrell Ranch for Breeze. The stone reads:
BREEZE - 21st, 31984 - Hereford Cow - born 1887 - died 1903 - Mother of the Dibrell herd