DUANE
Duane's take
The marker on this one tells the story, and I'm just here to pass it along. Now, G. D.
Cross was born in Arkansas in 1855, and whatever that state put into him, Texas got the benefit of it. By 1873 — when a lot of young men were still figuring out which direction to point themselves — Cross was riding with Hunter's Texas Ranger Company. He served through 1873 and into 1874, part of the effort to remove Indians from Texas.
It was hard, consequential work, the kind that marks a man whether he talks about it later or not. After that chapter closed, Cross settled into something a good deal quieter. He became a merchant.
A farmer. The sort of steady, root-down life that follows a man who's already had his share of open country and hard miles. In 1881 he married Mary A.
E. Shawver. And together — together — they had thirteen children.
Thirteen. You want to talk about a full table, well, we're getting to that. Because here is where the story turns into something worth pulling over for.
G. D. Cross knew that his old Ranger unit had once camped on a particular piece of ground.
He knew it the way old-timers know things — in the feet, in the chest. And so, on that very spot, he built a picnic table. Not a monument.
Not a marker. A picnic table. Built it so his family could gather there, reunion after reunion, eating and carrying on right where the Rangers had once made camp.
The man lived until 1941. Eighty-six years of Arkansas birth, Texas rangering, merchantin', farmin', and raising up thirteen souls — and at the end of it all, what he left on the land was a table. Something to sit down at together.
That's the whole story, and it's enough.
What the marker says
(1855 - 1941) Born in Arkansas. Served in Hunter's Texas Ranger Company 1873-1874, helping remove Indians from Texas. Later became merchant and farmer. Married Mary A. E. Shawver, 1881. Had 13 children. Built this picnic table (where his ranger unit once camped) to be used at family reunions. (1969)