The Texas Spirit Quest
is a series of Caches placed by
many individuals, near cemeteries and historic sites in hopes of
paying respect to the many pioneer ancestors that have
‘walked’ before
us.
There are hundreds of cemeteries in the rural communities
across Texas. This series will introduce you to many of them. The
cache pages will provide a virtual history tour of the cemeteries,
tombstones and local lore.
The sign for this cemetery notes that it was established in 1887;
however, transcriptionists who have recorded the data (such as can
be deciphered) from every marker at the site show several dates of
death that occurred prior to that year, with the earliest being in
1880. One online source shows 67 interments here, but the Hays
County history buffs show over 100, with plenty of members of the
Fuller, Holmes, Howard, Oliver, Tuttle, and Waldrip families. As
can be seen by the surnames, this is an Anglo cemetery as opposed
to the German/Czech ones that are common in this area. Immediately
adjacent is an unfenced and overgrown Hispanic cemetery (one of
three in the area to be referred to as "Staples Cemetery") with 19
interments, the earliest of which is for an infant who died in
1853, although that date is enough of an outlier to be doubted, as
the remainder fall in the period of
1909-37.
The grounds are at the end of a small dirt lane that goes
past a (hopefully) abandoned house and an enchanting local dumping
site. As always--any refinements to the listed coordinates are
welcomed.