William Sachse Cemetery

Duane's take

Now, this one comes straight from the official marker; let me tell you how it reads. Somewhere around 1845, a man from Prussia stepped off whatever conveyance had carried him across an ocean and half a continent, and he landed in Collin County, Texas, as a Peters colonist. His name was William Sachse, and if the land of his birth had any idea what he was about to do with his life, it probably would've tried harder to keep him.

Sachse got to work. He became a businessman, a rancher, a trader, and not in a quiet, stay-close-to-home kind of way. The man participated in several cattle drives all the way up to Kansas.

You want to talk about putting miles on your boots. And through all of it, deal by deal, acre by acre, Sachse accumulated more than five thousand acres of land spread across Collin and Dallas Counties. Five thousand acres.

That is not a man who thought small. Then came 1886, and William Sachse made a move that would outlast him by well over a century. He gave some of that land (land he had spent decades building) to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad.

For a railway line. And a townsite. The community that grew up around that railroad was named Sachse in his honor.

He moved his family to the new town. And then, in the way of a man who understood that a community needs more than a train depot to hold together, he set aside two acres of land. One piece for a church.

One for a cemetery. That cemetery has served as a public burial ground throughout its history. And the oldest marked grave in it?

That belongs to William Sachse himself, dated 1899. The man who gave the town its name was the first to be recorded in its earth. His second wife, Martha (Martha Frost by her family name) rests there too, along with a number of their descendants.

Early settlers found their way to those two acres as well, and their descendants after them. The names on the stones read like a roll call of the people who built this corner of Texas: Salmon, Herring, Ingram, House, Harper, Brand. A Prussian colonist, five thousand acres, a railroad deal, and a town that carries his name to this day.

And in the end, William Sachse's most lasting claim on the land is two quiet acres where the community he helped build comes to rest. That's a life that finished what it started.

What the marker says

William Sachse, a native of Prussia, arrived in nearby Collin County in 1845 as a Peters colonist. He became a successful businessman, rancher, and trader, and participated in several cattle drives to Kansas. His business successes over time allowed him to acquire more than 5000 acres of land in Collin and Dallas Counties. In 1886, Sachse gave some of this land to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad for a railway line and townsite. The community that grew up around the railroad was named Sachse in his honor. Sachse moved his family to the new town and soon set aside two acres of land for a church and this cemetery. The graveyard has been used throughout its history as a public burial ground. The oldest marked grave, that of William Sachse, is dated 1899. Sachse's second wife, Martha (Frost), a number of their descendants, as well as many early settlers and their descendants also are buried here. Some of the family names recorded here are Salmon, Herring, Ingram, House, Harper, and Brand. The William Sachse Cemetery, with its ties to early settlement in this part of the state, is an important reminder of the area's heritage.