DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give you my version of the story. William Green Butler and Adeline Burris Butler came to Texas with their families before the Civil War. Two families, two journeys, one eventual homestead out here in Karnes County.
In time, their ranching interests spread across not one, not two, but five South Texas counties. That is a serious stretch of land, and a serious family to go with it. But the ground we're talking about right now, this cemetery, it started with a grief.
Emmett Butler, twenty years old, killed in December of 1884, was the first person laid to rest here. Think about that for a moment. You build a homestead, you build a ranching empire across five counties, and then one December it becomes a burial ground, because of a son.
That is the kind of thing that changes a place forever. Now, among the forty graves here, some of the family were reinterred, brought in from other sites to rest alongside the others. And here is the detail that'll stay with you: some of those gravestones carry dates earlier than 1884.
The cemetery began with Emmett, but the family's story, the one written in stone, reaches back further than the day the ground was first broken for a grave. The cemetery is maintained through a trust fund and continues to serve the Butler family to this day. Forty graves, five counties, and one family that made sure their own would never be forgotten.
What the marker says
This cemetery was part of the original homestead of William Green and Adeline Burris Butler, who had migrated to Texas with their families before the Civil War. Eventually their ranching interests included land in five South Texas counties. Emmett, their 20-year-old son, killed in December 1884, was the first person buried in the graveyard. Among the 40 graves are members of Butler's family who were reinterred here from other sites. Some of their gravestones exhibited earlier dates than 1884. The cemetery, maintained through a trust fund, continues to serve the family. (1996)