Representing the Santa Fe Railroad, W.B. Storey, Jr. bought the future townsite of Slaton on April 15, 1911. The railroad's plans included a roundhouse, switch lines, depot and Harvey House, making Slaton a center for area rail transport. Rail employees and others quickly populated the city, which incorporated in October 1912. By that time, residents had established Englewood Cemetery with the burial of infant J.W. Ohrion earlier in the year. Among the thousands of graves there are several unmarked burials in a potter's field and veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War.