Sadler Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Sadler Cemetery, out in Coryell County. Now settle in, because this one reaches back a good long way. In the early 1850s, settlers came rolling into the country around a creek called Rainey's Creek.

A good many of them had made the journey from Tennessee, and they put down roots the way people do, quietly at first, and then all at once there's a community. For nearly two decades that community carried the name Rainey's Creek, until 1871, when the post office decided it was time for something a little more official. They changed the name to Coryell City, and that was that.

But before the name ever changed, before the post office weighed in on anything, a man named Chester Calhoun Sadler had already done something that tends to outlast everything else a person does. He set aside land. Land for a cemetery.

For his family, his friends, his neighbors. Chester Calhoun Sadler came to Texas from Tennessee, same as so many others in that country. He was a farmer and a freighter, a Confederate veteran, and by all accounts a community leader.

He made that journey with his wife, Delia Douglas Cowan Sadler, and their children. Now, Delia had a son from a previous marriage, a young man named Ira Bradford Sadler, and Ira's story is something worth pausing on. He served as a Confederate soldier, was taken as a prisoner of war, and then, after all of that, he came out the other side and became a lawyer.

More than that, he went on to serve in the Texas Legislature. The creek, the name change, the war, the law books. That's a life with some weather in it.

Chester Calhoun Sadler himself lived until 1911, and he rests in the very ground he set aside all those years before. Ira is buried there too, along with several other Civil War veterans, and the families and pioneers who built that corner of Coryell County. As Coryell City grew over the years, folks began turning to church graveyards for their burials, and the old Sadler Cemetery gradually grew quieter.

The last burial there was in 1940. Today the site is kept by Sadler descendants and community members, people who understand that some pieces of ground are worth holding onto. Chester Calhoun Sadler knew it first.

He knew it in the 1850s, before there was even a post office to argue about the name.

What the marker says

Sadler Cemetery Settlers, including many from Tennessee, arrived in the area around Rainey's Creek in the early 1850s. The community became known as Rainey's Creek until 1871, when the post office changed its name to Coryell City. By that time, the community cemetery had been established on land set aside in the 1850s by Chester Calhoun Sadler (d. 1911) for his family, friends and neighbors. Sadler, a farmer, freighter, confederate veteran and community leader, came to Texas from Tennessee with his wife, Delia Douglas Cowan Sadler, and their children. Ira Bradford Sadler, Delia's son from a previous marriage, was a Confederate soldier and a prisoner of war; he later became a lawyer and served in the Texas Legislature. These individuals and several other Civil War veterans are buried here among the graves of their families and other pioneers. As Coryell City grew, area residents began using church graveyards. The last burial in Sadler Cemetery was in 1940. Today, the site is maintained by Sadler descendants and community members. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002