Cypress Creek Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Cypress Creek Cemetery out in Real County. Now, there are places in Texas that hold the weight of the land itself; not in the stone of the monuments, but in the stones laid flat on the ground, quiet as a secret. Cypress Creek Cemetery is one of those places.

It got its start in the 1870s, serving a scattered community of pioneers along Cypress Creek. Back then, this stretch of country was still part of Bandera County; the town of Leakey hadn't been founded yet, and Edwards County was still a notion waiting to happen. These were people living out on the far edge of things, and they needed a place to lay their dead.

The land here belonged to a settler named John Bunyan Stidham, Sr. His son, John Bunyan Stidham, Jr., carried on that spirit of community. The younger Stidham gave land nearby for a school.

That's the kind of family this was. Now, the marker says legend surrounds this graveyard. And when you hear what's buried in this ground, you'll understand why.

The earliest grave is believed to belong to a child. Four years old. James Beauford Bybee, who came into this world in 1875 and left it in 1879.

His burial site isn't marked with cut stone or a carved inscription. It's marked with two flat rocks laid in the ground; that was Bybee family practice. Simple.

Deliberate. Quietly human. The second burial recorded here is that of Polly A.

Smart, born in 1847, laid to rest in 1881. And then there is Laura. Laura Turner Stidham, wife of John Bunyan Stidham, Jr.

She is buried here alongside her son Alonzo, who was born in 1877. They were killed when a tornado destroyed their home in 1927. Both of them, gone in the same terrible moment.

And they were buried together; a common grave, marked only with stones. No carved name. No date chiseled by a mason's hand.

Just stones, the same as the land gave and the same as the land took back. Scattered among the more than seventy-five marked graves, and the many more that are unmarked, you'll find the resting places of infants and children. The marker doesn't romanticize it.

It says plainly that those graves bear witness to the harsh conditions of pioneer life. That's all that needs saying. Ten known veterans of U.S. and foreign conflicts are interred here too.

Men who answered a call somewhere far from Cypress Creek and came home, eventually, to this ground. And here's the thing about Cypress Creek Cemetery that stays with you. When that marker was placed in 1998, this cemetery was still in use; still serving the descendants of those same pioneer settlers.

The roots didn't dry up. The line didn't break. Two flat rocks for a four-year-old.

Stones over a mother and son taken by a storm. Seventy-five marked graves and Lord knows how many more without a name above them. That's not legend; that's a community that refused to let its dead go unmarked, even when all they had was what the creek bed offered.

Out here along Cypress Creek, the stones do the talking.

What the marker says

Established in the 1870s, Cypress Creek Cemetery served a scattered community of pioneers along Cypress Creek in what was then Bandera County before the founding of nearby Leakey in Edwards County. The land on this site belonged to settler John Bunyan Stidham, Sr., whose son, John Bunyan Stidham, Jr., gave land for a school nearby. Legend surrounds this graveyard. The earliest grave in the cemetery is believed to be that of four-year-old James Beauford Bybee (1875-1879). His burial site is marked by two flat rocks in the ground according to Bybee family practice. Records indicate that the second burial is that of Polly A. Smart (1847-1881). Also buried here is Laura (Turner) Stidham, wife of John Bunyan Stidham, Jr. She and their son Alonzo (b. 1877) were killed when a tornado destroyed their home in 1927. They were buried in a common grave marked only with stones. The graves of several infants and children bear witness to the harsh conditions of pioneer life. Ten known veterans of U. S. and foreign conflicts are interred here. The cemetery contains more than 75 marked and many unmarked graves. Still in use in 1998, Cypress Creek Cemetery continues to serve the descendants of the pioneer settlers of Real County. (1998)