Trees Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll take it from there. Crawford Trees arrived in Texas in 1845, no small thing, that, and within a year he'd married Anna Kimmel, a fellow native of Illinois, in 1846. Two people a long way from home, putting down roots in new ground.

Then 1849 rolled around, and Crawford heard the same siren call that pulled thousands of men west: gold in California. So he went. And here's the part worth sitting with; he came back.

Two years later, Crawford Trees returned to Texas, and he didn't come back empty-handed. He came back with enough money to purchase five thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight acres of land. That's not a farm.

That's a world. By 1855, Crawford and Anna, who would go on to become the parents of ten children, donated a piece of that land for a community school and a church. They were building something lasting.

But then came August 21st, 1856, and the day that changed the shape of that land forever. Anna's brother, Philip Kimmel, and a friend by the name of William Stiles were killed in a shooting. Two men, gone.

And Crawford and Anna did what people do when the ground itself becomes sacred; they established a cemetery right there. What began in grief became a gathering place. Primarily a family burial ground, the cemetery also holds the graves of a number of family friends.

Anna Kimmel Trees lived until 1913, long outlasting Crawford, who died in 1889. And the cemetery they founded together? It's still there.

Maintained by a family association, still in use by Trees descendants to this day. Some things you plant in Texas, they just don't stop growing.

What the marker says

Crawford Trees (1823-1889) came to Texas in 1845. He and fellow Illinois native Anna Kimmel (1831-1913) were married in 1846. Crawford went to California during the Gold Rush in 1849, returning to Texas two years later with enough money to purchase 5,458 acres of land. In 1855, he and Anna, eventually the parents of ten children, donated land for a community school and church. They established this cemetery when Anna's brother, Philip Kimmel, and a friend, William Stiles, were killed in a shooting on August 21, 1856. Primarily a family burial ground, the cemetery also contains the graves of a number of family friends. Maintained by a family association, the cemetery remains in use by Trees descendants. (2001)