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.
This is the first site out of roughly 100 TSQ placements that I've made that is said to be haunted. Here lies Sarah Herndon (1800-1863), who lived in the now-vanished community of Donahoe (see the historical marker some distance to the south down this road, across from the Donahoe / Science Hill Cemetery). One day she went to visit neighbors and got stuck in the mud along the bank of the creek that flows past this spot. (This may sound unlikely, but the same thing started happening to me on apparently solid ground over by the cache at the nearby Davilla Waterworks.) She was unable to extricate herself and got sucked down to her doom. It was not until a few days later that her body was found. Evidently it was so disgustingly decayed at that point that they opted to bury her on the spot, despite the proximity of the actual cemetery. Since then, it has been said that folks crossing the bridge here may chance to hear her screaming for help. (Although this is NOT, of course, to be confused with Texas's famous Woman Hollering Creek.)
I would recommend reading up a little on this bit of local folklore--see the Related Website link above for a start. Most accounts are a bit mystified about the mysterious caretakers who have been maintaining the site. This, I can solve. As I was puttering about here, I chanced to encounter the local landowner, a retired rancher who lives in Bartlett. His family holds much of the property around here. They're the ones who come by and periodically clean up the plot. He also had some insight on the missing headstone, which seems to have vanished prior to October 2012. Evidently, it WAS recovered, and some organization in Milam County (perhaps the historical commission?) has it. It would be great to see it returned some day. I urge visitors to this cache to practice a bit of CITO to help keep the place tidy--and, of course, to stay away from the creek. As always, any refinements to the listed coordinates are welcomed.