DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men leave a mark on a place just by showing up — John H. Brown was one of those men.
They called him Shorty. John H. "Shorty" Brown, born 1817, and he had a way of making things happen wherever he landed. He'd lived a spell in Arkansas, him and his wife Jane Ann and some of their children, before they packed up and came to this stretch of Texas.
And when they got here, Shorty didn't wait around to see what the country would become — he helped found San Saba in 1854. Civic leader, the kind of man a young county leans on. Now, San Saba County had itself a graveyard, which would've been the practical choice for most folks.
But Shorty Brown and Jane Ann, they deeded this very plot — right near their home — as a family burial ground. There's something in that. A man who helped build a whole town, and he wanted his people close.
Jane Ann Brown, who bore seventeen of Shorty's twenty-one children — seventeen — was probably the first to be laid to rest here, around 1874. And the ground kept receiving the family. A son of Shorty's is buried here.
A son-in-law too. Both of them murdered. The marker doesn't linger on that, and neither will I — but it doesn't let you forget it either.
Shorty himself followed in 1896. What started as one family's plot near one family's home became something more — a piece of ground that holds joy and grief and violence and years, all together, the way family tends to do.
What the marker says
After living for a time in Arkansas, John H. "Shorty" Brown (1817-1896), his wife Jane Ann, and some of their children came here. Brown helped found San Saba in 1854 and became a civic leader. Although San Saba County provided a graveyard, Brown and his wife deeded this plot near their home for a family burial ground. Jane Ann, who bore 17 of Brown's 21 children, was probably the first burial here about 1874. Brown's son and a son-in-law who were murdered are buried here along with other family members and friends.