DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Banquete Cemetery — and friend, this one's got some story in it. Back in June of 1832, something happened out here along the Nueces River that set the whole thing in motion. A colony of Irish families — settled here by John McMullen and James McGloin — got connected to Mexico by the completion of the Matamoros Road.
Now, Mexican officials wanted to make a good impression on these newcomers, so they sponsored a Fiesta right near this very site. A goodwill gesture, they called it. Four days of celebration.
And the village that later grew up around here? It took its name from that four-day party — Banquete. The Mexican word for the celebration itself.
By the time the Civil War rolled around — 1861 to 1865 — Banquete was already a going concern. Stock raising, horse trading, the kind of hardscrabble commerce that suits South Texas just fine. And during the war, the town found itself sitting on something valuable: a spot on the trade route to Mexico.
Supplies moved through here. People moved through here. The war had a way of making otherwise quiet crossroads matter a great deal.
Now, a mile east of where this marker stands, there's a cemetery. And the oldest marked grave in that cemetery belongs to a man named Joseph P. Madray, born in 1840, a local rancher who was serving in the Confederate Army when typhoid fever took him on June 2, 1863.
He wasn't the only Confederate soldier laid to rest out there. Others joined him, along with prominent Banquete residents — members of the Bennett family, the Elliff family, the Saunders family, and the Wright family among them. But here's where the story gets a little color.
By tradition — and in Texas, tradition carries weight — the land where that cemetery sits was once the site of stockpens belonging to a woman named Sally Scull. Notorious horse trader. Cotton freighter.
A figure of the Civil War period who clearly left enough of an impression that people were still talking about those stockpens long after she was gone. The marker doesn't dress it up and neither will I — notorious is the word they used, and notorious is the word she earned. The cemetery itself came to be a proper community burial ground when pioneer rancher B.A.
Bennett — born in 1824 — deeded one acre for that purpose in 1910. Then, in the 1950s, another acre was added. Today, by the count of the marker, it holds about 200 marked graves.
A four-day fiesta, a fever in wartime, a notorious woman's stockpens, and a rancher's generous deed — all of it folded into one acre of South Texas ground, then two. That's Banquete Cemetery.
What the marker says
In June 1832 the colony of Irish families settled along the Nueces River by John McMullen and James McGloin was linked to Mexico by completion of the Matamoros Road. Mexican officials sponsored a Fiesta near this site as a goodwill gesture to the colonists. The village that later grew up here was called "Banquete", the Mexican name for the 4-day celebration. Banquete was settled before the civil war (1861-65) as a stock raising and horse trading center. During the war, it was an important stop on the trade route to Mexico. Oldest marked grave in Banquete Cemetery (1 mile east) is that of Joseph P. Madray (b. 1840), a local rancher who was serving in the confederate army when he died of typhoid fever, June 2, 1863. Also buried here are other confederate soldiers and prominent Banquete residents, including members of the Bennett, Elliff, Saunders, and Wright families. By tradition, the cemetery property was once the site of stockpens belonging to Sally Scull, notorious horse trader and cotton freighter of the civil war period. Pioneer rancher B.A. Bennett (b. 1824) deeded one acre for the community burial ground in 1910. In the 1950's, another acre was added to the cemetery, which contains about 200 marked graves.