San Saba Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the San Saba Cemetery, and friend, there's more to this ground than meets the eye. About 800 yards north of old town San Saba, sitting on 17 acres of quiet Texas earth, you'll find a place that has been holding the town's memories for well over a century. It goes by San Saba Cemetery now, but for a long stretch of its life it answered to a different name entirely.

The Odd Fellows Cemetery. And the story of how it came to be is worth knowing. On April 18, 1883, the San Saba Chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the IOOF, purchased 10 acres of land from a man named J.J.

Stockbridge. They had a purpose in mind, plain and serious: a cemetery. And they kept that purpose for 45 years, maintaining the grounds, tending to the departed, holding that land in trust for the community.

Then comes April 3, 1929. The newly incorporated San Saba Cemetery Association stepped in and purchased the cemetery. Now here's where it gets interesting.

That purchase price? One dollar. Just one.

And they also acquired an additional 7 acres from a Mrs. May Holman. That parcel?

Also one dollar. Two transactions, two dollars total, and the cemetery had a new keeper. But the ground wasn't done growing its story.

In 1935, burials from San Saba's earliest city cemetery, the one that's now known as Rogan Field, were reinterred here. People moved, in a manner of speaking, one last time, brought to rest in this place so their memory wouldn't be paved over or forgotten. Seventeen acres.

Multiple names. A dollar here, a dollar there. And underneath it all, the earliest times of San Saba, still present, still speaking.

The marker says it plainly: this cemetery is a continuing record of the lives and culture of its changing people. Some records are kept in books. Some are kept in stone.

And some are kept right here, 800 yards north of old town, waiting on whoever's willing to listen.

What the marker says

SAN SABA CEMETERY, PREVIOUSLY THE ODD FELLOWS CEMETERY, IS LOCATED ON 17 ACRES OF LAND ABOUT 800 YARDS NORTH OF OLD TOWN SAN SABA. ON APRIL 18, 1883 THE SAN SABA CHAPTER OF THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS (IOOF) PURCHASED 10 ACRES OF THIS LAND FROM J.J. STOCKBRIDGE TO ESTABLISH A CEMETERY, WHICH THEY MAINTAINED FOR 45 YEARS. ON APRIL 3, 1929, THE NEWLY INCORPORATED SAN SABA CEMETERY ASSOCIATION PURCHASED THE CEMETERY FOR $1.00 AND AN ADDITIONAL 7 ACRES FROM MRS. MAY HOLMAN, ALSO FOR $1.00. IN 1935 BURIALS FROM SAN SABA'S EARLIEST CITY CEMETERY, NOW ROGAN FIELD, WERE REINTERRED HERE. THE CEMETERY REFLECTS SAN SABA'S EARLIEST TIMES AND IS A CONTINUING RECORD OF THE LIVES AND CULTURE OF ITS CHANGING PEOPLE.