Crosby County

Duane's take

The State of Texas put this one down in 1936, and I'm just here to carry it a little further down the road. Now, out on the high plains of Crosby County, two people earned names that tell you everything. Henry Clay Smith, known to just about everybody as Uncle Hank, and his wife Elizabeth Boyle Smith, known as Aunt Hank.

You heard that right. Uncle Hank and Aunt Hank. Some partnerships run so deep the names start to match.

Uncle Hank came a long way to get here. Born in Germany on August 15, 1836, he made it out to the Texas plains and became something the marker calls a Pioneer of the Plains. Elizabeth was born July 12, 1848, and she made that same hard life alongside him.

Together, they built something in 1877 that the marker doesn't just call a building. It calls it a monument. The Rock House, built in 1877, a monument to frontier hospitality.

On the plains, in that era, those aren't small words. A rock structure meant permanence when most things weren't. And hospitality meant survival when neighbors were far and the land was wide and unforgiving.

Uncle Hank died May 20, 1912. Aunt Hank followed on June 5, 1925. And here's the detail that stays with you.

They sleep above the Cap Rock, at Old Emma. The Cap Rock. That great geological edge where the high plains drop away.

They built there, they lived there, and in the end, they stayed. The State of Texas saw fit to remember them both in 1936, and I'd say the Rock House already made the argument long before anyone put up a marker.

What the marker says

In memory of Henry Clay Smith, 'Uncle Hank'...Born in Germany, August 15, 1836, died, May 20, 1912 and Elizabeth Boyle Smith, 'Aunt Hank,'...Born July 12, 1848, died, June 5, 1925....Pioneers of the Plains, builders of the Rock House, 1877, a monument to frontier hospitality........They sleep above the Cap Rock, at Old Emma. Erected by the State of Texas 1936