DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Brown County, there's a graveyard called Mud Creek Cemetery — named for the creek that runs nearby — and it has been holding the stories of the Thrifty and Fry communities for more than a hundred years. That's a long time.
A long, quiet time. The first person known to be buried there was an infant, Martha Blackwell, who died in 1864. Just a baby.
And that right there sets the tone for what this ground has witnessed. But here's the thing — the cemetery may reach back even further than Martha. Somewhere among the graves, there's a rock slab with a name carved into it.
A name that time has worn away until nobody can read it anymore. That stone suggests the cemetery was already in use as early as 1862. Somebody was laid to rest there, and now even their name is gone.
Just the stone remains, keeping the secret. Among those who followed were people like Charles Mullins, born in 1790, died in 1880 — a pioneer settler who packed up his family and brought them all the way to this area back in 1858. The man saw a lot of Texas history from that patch of ground.
Also buried in Mud Creek Cemetery are victims of Indian attacks — lives cut short out on the frontier, where the land itself was still being contested. And then the twentieth century rolled in, and with it the oil boom of 1926 and 1927, and some of the folks swept up in that rush ended up here too — whether fortune found them or didn't. Mud Creek Cemetery holds all of them.
The infant and the old pioneer. The frontier dead and the boom-time souls. More than a hundred years of Brown County life, right there beside the creek.
What the marker says
Named for nearby Mud Creek, this graveyard has served residents of the Thrifty and Fry communities for more than 100 years. The first person known to be buried at the site was infant Martha Blackwell, who died in 1864. However, a rock slab that bears an illegible name indicates the cemetery was used as early as 1862. Others buried in Mud Creek Cemetery include pioneer settler Charles Mullins (1790-1880) who brought his family to the area in 1858, victims of Indian attacks, and persons involved in the 1926-27 area oil boom. (1983)