San Saba County Historical Commission

Jones Cemetery

Location:

This small cemetery is located in the Wallace Creek Community on the ranch of Jimmy and Jeri Jones.  The Jones Ranch is about nine miles southwest of the city of San Saba.

               
  Directions:

                  · From San Saba city limit west on U. S. Highway 190

·  Go 0.4 mile to FM 1030 (the Wallace Creek Road.) Turn left onto FM 1030 and go southwest 6.9 miles to gate on right. Jimmy Jones Ranch is the name is on the gate, and there is a flagpole by the gate.

·  Go through the gate and stay right on a gravel road 0.2 mile to a small creek that runs across the road.

·  Cross the creek and turn immediately to the right and follow the road that runs alongside the creek.

·  Go about 0.1 mile to the dead end at the cemetery.


Condition
:

  The Jones family has reclaimed this old burial ground, which had been abandoned for many years.  It is an area of about 90 ft. by 120 ft., enclosed by a recently built five ft. high wire fence with metal posts.  There is a double wide metal gate at mid-point in the west fence line that provides easy access into the cemetery.  Much of the intruding brush and cacti have been removed, and it is evident that clearing and cleaning is continuing.

 
Inventory: 

·                     There are only two graves in this cemetery, one adult and a child.

 

·                     These two graves are located side by side in the center of the present enclosure, and each is surrounded by rock walls.  The rock fences or walls were constructed of rectangular slabs (hand chiseled) of sandstone. Many of the chisel marks remain visible.

 

·   No information is available today for identifying these graves.  However, information provided by members of families who lived in that area in the early 1900’s—state that there was a single tombstone with a date and perhaps identifying initials.  The tombstone was removed and is now lost to history.

 

·  There is, however, one identifying marker that remains—a large rectangular stone at the foot of the adult grave with the clearly engraved date, “1842.”


·    
Some who know about these graves believe that they are the graves of a mother and child who were among the early settlers to this not yet established San Saba County, or they may have been of a family passing through to some other area to make their home.

 

·   If the “1842” date that is inscribed on the footstone was intended to indicate the death and burial date of this [mother and child], it would mark this site as one of the first burials of a “white person” in this part of the about to become new state of Texas.

 

·   Sadly, this cemetery inventory came too late to preserve the valuable story these graves may have told.  Time, neglect, and vandalism have taken their toll on this old burial site.

 

 Submitter:       Stan Burnham  
                       San Saba County Historical Commission

                        Phone: 325-372-3123

                        Date: January 5, 2009