The Old San Elizario Cemetery served the community for over 100 years. Many of the people who struggled to build the town of San Elizario found their final resting place in this camposanto (blessed field). Because early grave markers were made of wood, all above-ground evidence of this cemetery's existence has eroded completely. In 1871, District Judge Simon Newcomb ordered it closed for sanitary reasons. Sheriff Charles Ellis served Padre Antonio Borrajo with papers forbidding the burial of any more people in this cemetery, as the new camposanto had already been established a few miles west of town. The first to defy the order was Borrajo himself. The very next day, Padre Borrajo led a funeral procession to the old cemetery and buried a child there. Some families followed his example and insisted on burying their relatives at the old site until 1896.