DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Bandera County has seen its share of tough, stubborn, remarkable people — but even by Texas standards, Amasa Clark was something else. Born in 1825, he'd already fought in the Mexican War before most men had figured out what they wanted to do with their lives.
And then he did something that took a particular brand of nerve: he became the first permanent settler of Bandera. Not the second. The first.
Out here where there was nothing but cedar and silence and whatever was watching you from the tree line. That was Amasa Clark's kind of country. He put down roots — literally — operating an orchard and nursery right there on that original homestead for many years.
The man who tamed wild land grew living things from it. And tucked into that same homestead, quiet now under the Hill Country sky, sits a small cemetery where several generations of the Clark family have been laid to rest. The first recorded burial there was Eliza Jane, Clark's first wife, in 1883.
He would outlive her by a long stretch. He'd go on to marry a second wife, Lucy. He'd go on to raise nineteen children — nineteen — which is a number that deserves a moment of silence all by itself.
And Amasa Clark himself? He lived to one hundred and one years old. Born in 1825, died in 1927.
He is buried there on that same ground he first settled, beside Eliza, beside Lucy, surrounded by the generations he left behind. A Mexican War veteran, a pioneer, an orchardman, a father nineteen times over — and a man who, when the land called, answered, and then simply refused to leave.
What the marker says
Located on the original homestead of Bandera County pioneer Amasa Clark (1825-1927), this small cemetery contains the graves of several generations of the Clark family. The first recorded burial was that of Clark's first wife, Eliza Jane, in 1883. A veteran of the Mexican War and the first permanent settler of Bandera, Amasa Clark operated an orchard and nursery at this site for many years. He lived to age 101. His grave is located here along with those of his first wife, Eliza; his second wife, Lucy; and a number of his nineteen children. (1990)