Osage Community Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Osage Community Cemetery — and it's a story worth slowing down for. Out on the Blackland Prairie of Colorado County, a community took root near a spring-fed creek called Harvey's Creek. The people who came first — many of them from Tennessee and Mississippi — were new settlers looking for land and a place to put down something permanent.

And permanent is exactly what they built. In 1856, ten acres were deeded from the Henry Austin five-league survey to this community. Osage, they called it.

Of those ten acres, about one-quarter acre was eventually set aside as a community cemetery. Then in 1873, another acre was purchased to expand it. Land for the living first, then land for the remembered.

The names that arrived with those early families — Burford, Goode, McLeary, Moore, Shaw — you can still find them out there if you know where to look. And a few people arrived with even older Texas roots. Citizens of the Republic of Texas itself moved to the Harvey's Creek area when land became available.

Six of them ended up buried in the Osage Community Cemetery: William B. Scates and his wife Sarah, whose maiden name was McMillan; Robert G. Morgan and two of his daughters, Sallie and Eliza; and Eliza's husband, James McMillan.

Now William B. Scates — that name deserves a beat of silence. He was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

He was a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. And for a time, this quiet prairie cemetery was where he rested. He and Sarah were buried at Osage before both were reinterred in Austin at the Texas State Cemetery in 1929.

The Republic came and went, the Republic of Texas, that is, but the people who built it carried the weight of that history all the way out to Harvey's Creek. Walk through that cemetery today and the monuments tell their own story. The oldest go back to 1860.

Some markers are handmade sandstone, rough-cut and humble. Others are false crypts built from stone pulled right out of Harvey's Creek. And then there are the imposing granite and marble obelisks — somebody wanted to be sure they were not forgotten.

Masonic emblems are numerous. Confederate markers too. Not every burial has a marker.

Some people were laid to rest and the ground just kept its silence. But in 2001, the community answered that silence. A cenotaph was erected, bearing the names of forty-six people known to be buried there but for whom no existing marker stood.

Forty-six names, finally spoken again after years of going unwritten in stone. The Osage Community Cemetery is still out there on that Blackland Prairie, quiet and standing. Settlers from Tennessee and Mississippi, citizens of a vanished Republic, a signer of the Declaration that made Texas Texas — all of them found their way to Harvey's Creek.

And in one way or another, they're still there.

What the marker says

Osage first began as a community of new settlers, many from Tennessee and Mississippi, on the Blackland Prairie near spring-fed Harvey's Creek. The community was deeded ten acres from the Henry Austin five-league survey in 1856, approximately one-quarter acre of which eventually was devoted to a community cemetery. In 1873, an additional acre was purchased for the cemetery. Newly-arrived settlers included the families of Burford, Goode, McLeary, Moore and Shaw. A few citizens of the Republic of Texas also moved to the Harvey's Creek area when land became available. Six were buried in the Osage Community Cemetery: William B. and Sarah (McMillan) Scates, Robert G. Morgan and two of his daughters, Sallie and Eliza, and Eliza's husband, James McMillan. Scates, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, was buried in Osage before both he and his wife were reinterred in Austin at the Texas State Cemetery in 1929. The monuments in the cemetery, as old as 1860, vary from handmade sandstone markers and false crypts using stone from Harvey's Creek to imposing granite and marble obelisks. Masonic emblems and confederate markers are numerous. Not all burials are marked; however, in 2001, a cenotaph was erected with names of forty-six of those known to be buried in the cemetery but for whom there was no existing marker. Standing the test of time, the Osage Community Cemetery remains a quiet testimony to those first men and women who braved the hardship of pioneer life and created a community that lives on in the hearts and minds of many. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2016