Welcome to Baccus Cemetery. This is the site of the oldest recorded burial that we know of in what became the city of Plano. It is the story of human migration against the backdrop of a vast continent, colored by human reactions.
Our story begins during the early summer of 1775, when the eastern seaboard was preparing for the now inevitable conflict against England. 18 full days after the opening of the Second Continental Congress, on 5/28, a boy named Henry was born to allegedly German immigrants in the colony of Virginia. The family eventually settled in what became Green County, IL near an Indian colony and French settlement.
Shortly before his 25th birthday in 1800, Henry married his first wife Elizabeth. In 1805 he married Nellie and they had a son in Aug. 1807. By 1811, Henry married Alcy Nix, having seemed to outlive two wives before middle age. According to the official history of the cemetery, submitted here, Henry might have had two or three other wives not recorded.
The constant stream of anglo settlers trampling American Indian lands had boiled over into various conflicts, like the Battle of Tippacannoe, that took place in nearby Indiana a few months after Henry's third marriage. Coupled with an incompetent president ratcheting up tensions with British sailors and the insatiable American need to expand their territory, another war seemed inevitable.
Henry enlisted in the 2nd Regiment of Militia of Illinois. We can only assume being raised near an Indian settlement gave Henry a special set of tools in dealing with the natives. He parlayed knowledge of native languages to become a translator. In this climate of mistrust, Henry found his way into "Captain Samuel Judy's Company of Mounted Spies". Henry was promoted to Lt. but came back by the winter of 1814 to settle in with his family and have more children. Henry Jr. came in 1815, followed by David, Jacob and lastly Mary Ann in 1820. His third wife died in 1824. Henry married one more time, to Sarah Kincaid. They had Martha (b. 1826), Elizabeth (b. 1829), Rachel (b. 1830), Daniel (b. 1831), Lewis (b. 1834), and Sarah Jane (b. 1839).
All the while Henry stayed near the soil he was raised on, where he probably buried his loved ones and saw many seasons pass. But family has a unique way of pulling you to the ends of the Earth. Back east, "His Accidency" President John Tyler focused on adding the newly independent "Republic of Texas" into the fold. The territory, yanked from the Mexicans after they dared to abolish slavery by insatiable whites, was a magnet for new settlement. David Cook, his 28-year-old son, ventured to Texas in 1844. In September of the next year Sarah, Henry and his various children traveled with their families across the continent, to Texas.
According to a family history written by Ethel B. Kennedy, a descendent, "The Cook Family camped at Old Indian Springs... They moved on to Trinity Mills, near Carrollton, where they joined other Illinois families who had come to Texas before... [Henry] Cook thought the area was too low and wet to be healthy so they went back to White Rock Ridge to settle. They lived in a tent the remainder of the winter and in the spring of 1846, built a cabin." It was in January of 1846 when his son Daniel died.
According to family story and legend, Cook buried Daniel "...in the wilderness not far from his father's newly built log cabin which had an animal skin for a front door". He was just 15 years old and is now remembered for being the first recorded Anglo burial in Plano. Naturally, when other nearby settlers needed a place to bury their dead, this land soon became a cemetery. The next recorded burial was in Aug. 1850, for Henry's one-year old grandson George W. Martin. Other than his son Lewis, who moved on to Idaho, the rest of his children settled in the area. From her narrative "Lebanon on the Preston", Adelle Rogers Clark described Henry's home more eloquently than I ever could.
"The Henry Cook home was known as the "Lone" or "Lonesome" house. The house of this farm was a trail marker by day and a light-house by night, visible in all directions. It was located on a little crest from which this family saw great herds of buffaloes roaring across the prairie. Located on a crest which overlooked one of the most extensive views along the old north-south Preston Trail, an old house nestled like an orphan bird in the grass, attracting travelers across the prairie. [Henry's] first house was two big rooms built of logs with two rock fireplaces --- one at each end of the house. For several years the Cook family lived in this small house."
As Henry was entering the end stage of his life, the fourth major conflict of his life was brewing. Less than a fortnight after Robert E. Lee was named the Army of N. Virginia Commander, on 6/10/62, Henry died.
Henry's story ends there, like all our stories end, abruptly and seemingly unfinished. His widow inherited his nearby farm and land. Sarah applied for a veteran’s pension, which are now critical genological touchstones for future generations all over America. With the money from that pension, she set up an ornate tombstone for Henry. Noting how most tombstones in early Collin County were made from Bois d'Arc wood, the cemetery website speculates:
"Perhaps Daniel's grave was given a permanent marker when Sarah Cook got her government pension. It seems likely that when Sarah marked [Henry's] grave she did not fail to remember the resting place of her seventeen-year-old son."
Henry's daughters married into various families of early Collin County and coincidentally the day Henry died, his daughter Rachel lost her husband William Bridges. It was Rachel who formally designated this land to be a cemetery for her father's decedents. She went on to re-marry, to Joseph Baccus. She then bought out her mother and brother Lewis's inherited land.
The cemeteries website asserts "although Rachel stipulated in her deed that the cemetery was for the heirs of Henry Cook, there were in time many non-heirs buried there. Also, although Henry Cook had stipulated that Lewis care for his mother, when Lewis left the state and sold his property, it was Elizabeth Cook Heustis's home that Sarah chose to go to live out her days." This cemetery is still in use! Here is a photo of the four daughters dated c. 1902.
Thanks to the Plano Magazine article about the cemetery, a decendent David submitted this photo of the house from 1905. "The Henry Baccus home (shown circa 1905) was located just north of the Baccus Cemetery, near the present-day water fountain by Mexican Sugar restaurant. Shown in this photo are (L-R) Henry Baccus, his mother Rachel Baccus, his son Ira, and his wife Jennie"
Now that you have combed through the introduction, you may park near the front entry at the "parking waypoint". Two historic markers are there with more info. The cache you seek can be found without entering the cemetery.
First, go to the posted coordinates. You should see an ornate gate with "Baccus Cemetery" on it. Now look for Henry's tombstone, built from his veterans compensation.
Is his tombstone to your left or right?
If it's on your left, the cache you seek is on the SE corner
If it's on your right, the cache you seek is on the SW corner
There is a T 1.5 way to the cache and a T 2.5. The path you take is your choice.