Texas Spirit Quest #86: Wade Cemetery Traditional Cache

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.

This is NOT the Jechow Cemetery which is prominently shown on certain maps--I believe that site may be further down the road than I dared to go. I instead randomly rammed into this location, which technically is two cemeteries in one: the German half called Wade, and the Hispanic half called Galle Mexican. Up through at least the early 1900s in this part of the state, Mexican burials typically took place in cemeteries that were purely Hispanic and that were located at least some distance from their European counterparts. In cases when Anglos and Mexicans were buried in close proximity, there was almost always a wall separating the two sections (see Texas Spirit Quest #35 for the Live Oak and St. Michael's Cemeteries, or TSQ #66 for the Tuttle Cemetery, a very nicely manicured and fenced site, outside of which are some Hispanic graves tucked away in the underbrush). Here, both halves are enclosed by a single fence, although perhaps tellingly, the markers in the Wade section generally face west, while those in the Galle section face east. At any rate, there are 26 interments in Wade, dating from 1849 (which seems doubtfully early) to 1961, and 35 interments in Galle, ranging from 1895 to 1942, and most inscriptions on the headstones here are in Spanish.

While there are obvious signs of periodic attempts to clear away underbrush, the site here is still rather badly overgrown. One marker was repaired in 2000, but many others are in bad shape. There are a few unknown burials here, and several disinterments have taken place over the years. Be careful when walking about--there are scattered ankle-level cacti here and there, and a few suspiciously subsided areas. As always, any refinements to the listed coordinates are welcomed.