In March 1892, Lubbock residents requested five acres of pasture land from rancher H.M. Bandy for use as a cemetery, and that same month the first burial was held there for Cochran County cowboy Henry Jenkins, who died of pneumonia while staying at a local hotel. The first Lubbock resident buried there was Joseph R. Coleman, who died in June 1892, and his small cross-shaped headstone, no longer in existence, was the first erected in the cemetery. The cemetery has held as many as four separate burial grounds, segregated by race, faith and economic level, and records indicate that various distinct cemetery associations maintained these burial grounds throughout the 20th century. One such group, Los Socios del Sementerio, provided for the burial of area migrant workers. The cemetery was integrated in the late 1960s. With more than 60,000 graves, it is one of the largest in Texas, and its burials represent a broad cross-section of the city's history, including noted rock and roll musician and songwriter Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly.