Alum Creek Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at Alum Creek Cemetery tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture the 1820s. Stephen F.

Austin is putting out a call, an invitation really, to come settle this part of Texas, which at the time was still a part of Mexico. And families answered. The Cottle family answered.

So did the Highsmith, Grimes, Craft, Ridgeway, White, and Parks families. All of them rolling in from Missouri, arriving in this area in 1828. Seven families, one destination, and a whole lot of faith that this land would be worth the trouble.

For some, the trouble started before they ever got there. Sarah Cottle, whose full name before marriage was Sarah Turner, made that journey without her husband. He died during the trip to Texas.

She arrived a widow, and she kept going. Three years after those families settled in, Sarah received title to her land, situated along Alum Creek. She built a life on it.

She held onto it until her death in 1843, when the property was divided among her heirs. Now, the land changes hands, but the story doesn't stop there. In 1857, Newton Alsup and his wife Mary, who was a Cottle by birth, deeded a portion of that land to the Alum Creek community.

Two purposes: a cemetery, and a Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The building didn't stay exclusive to one congregation, though. Other denominations held services there too, and the community used it as a school as well.

One building doing the work of three. The first marked graves in that cemetery date to 1875, and a number of burials are marked simply by fieldstones, quiet and plain, the way a lot of hard lives tend to end up remembered. By 1950, the community had formed an association specifically to maintain the cemetery, and that association is still at it.

Still tending those grounds. And that, right there, is the whole thread of this place. Families who came before Texas was even Texas, a woman who finished a journey her husband couldn't, land that became community, and a cemetery that connects every generation since back to that first brave, dusty arrival in 1828.

What the marker says

In the 1820s, several families answered Stephen F. Austin's call to settle this part of Texas, then a part of Mexico. The Cottle, Highsmith, Grimes, Craft, Ridgeway, White and Parks families were among those who arrived in this area from Missouri in 1828. Three years later, Sarah (Turner) Cottle, whose husband had died during the journey to Texas, received title to her land, situated along Alum Creek. After her death in 1843, the property was divided among her heirs. In 1857, Newton and Mary (Cottle) Alsup deeded land to the Alum Creek community for a cemetery and a Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Other denominations held services in the building, which was also used for a community school. The first marked graves in the cemetery date to 1875, and a number of burials are marked by fieldstones. In 1950, community members formed an association. It continues to maintain the cemetery, which remains a link to the settlers who arrived in the years before Texas independence and to the generations that have since been a part of the Alum Creek community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004