Ropesville grew from a rail stop created after local rancher I.L. Ellwood negotiated with the Santa Fe railroad in 1917 to build tracks through his Spade Ranch connecting Lubbock and Seagraves, offering 85 acres for a depot, stock pens, and an agent’s house; ranchers from as far away as New Mexico drove cattle there, where rope corrals held the animals until shipment, leading to the name Ropes, and a post office was established as Ropesville in 1920. In the community’s early years, families had to carry their dead back to former home towns or to Meadow in Terry County for burial. In 1933, after farmer and rancher Lee Cowan was severely injured, he asked to be buried on the knoll just west of town, and after his death Ellwood honored that wish by donating one acre for a burial ground, creating Ropesville Cemetery. As regular interments began, the Ropes Cemetery association was organized about 1935 to oversee the site. The cemetery expanded with the purchase of one half acre from the Farm Security Administration in 1943 and another 2.5 acres in 1992, and it continues to serve Ropesville and surrounding rural residents.