DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Real County, there's a little piece of ground that holds more than just the dead. It holds a story — and once you hear it, you won't soon shake it loose.
A young couple, Joseph Hutchinson Clark and Annie Susie Wilson, bought this land on April 2, 1887. Newlyweds. Annie's own father sold it to them.
You can imagine how that felt — starting a life together on land that was already family. Whatever they built here, they built it from that. Joseph was born in 1857.
Annie in 1869. They had years ahead of them, or so it seemed. Now, here's where the story takes its turn.
According to family oral history, Joseph had recently told his daughter of his wish — that when his time came, he wanted to be buried right here, on this land. He said it plain. He made it known.
Christmas Eve, 1901. Joseph Clark was killed in a wagon accident on a curve between this place and Reagan Wells. He got his wish.
Just not the way anyone wanted. Annie kept on. In 1905, she married again — this time to David Gaston Clark, born in 1864.
Joseph's own brother. Two families becoming one family, the way grief sometimes quietly arranges things. David was a good man, by all accounts.
Lived a long life. Born 1864, died 1943. He was killed in an accident.
On the same curve. The same curve where his brother had died, nearly five decades before. You want to call that coincidence, you go right ahead.
Real County will just wait while you work that out. And Annie — Annie Susie Wilson Clark, who came into this world in 1869 and didn't leave it until 1953 — she was laid to rest right here. Between her two husbands.
That's not a metaphor. That's where she is. The rest of the Clark family is here too, sharing this ground, this history, this quiet curve of Texas hill country that seems to have had a say in things nobody asked it about.
Some places just hold on to people. This is one of them.
What the marker says
Newlyweds Joseph Hutchinson Clark (1857-1901) and Annie Susie Wilson (1869-1953) bought this land from Annie's father on April 2, 1887. On Christmas Eve, 1901, Joseph was killed in a wagon accident on a curve between here and Reagan Wells. According to family oral history, he had recently told his daugher of his wish to be buried at this site. In 1905, Annie married Joseph's brother, David Gaston Clark (1864-1943). He was killed in an accident on the same curve where his brother died nearly five decades earlier. Annie was laid to rest between her two husbands. They share this burial ground with other members of the Clark family. Historic Texas Cemetery-2001