GRAVES IN SANCO CEMETERY CLUES TO HISTORY OF THE AREA, Coke County, TX

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Submitted to the Archives by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
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The San Angelo Standard-Times, 1 Jul 1956, San Angelo, TX

Where Memories Are Ever Green
GRAVES IN SANCO CEMETERY CLUES TO HISTORY OF AREA

By Dean Chenoweth, Editor, Standard-Times

SANCO, June 30 - The sprites of history mingle in the dust of the old 
Sanco Cemetery, where daring old men were once served by the 
Butterfield Trail.

They lived in dugouts about the mountains here, they found living 
water in Grape Creek, now known as Yellow Wolf Creek, and they claimed 
the land for their herds of cattle and sheep.  They dared the Indians 
to do their utmost and they pushed back the frontier.

Close by was the old stage stand, burned by the Indians in 1861.  That
was in the days when Chief Sanco and Chief Yellow Wolf led their roving
bands of Comanche Indidans through the area.

The Civil War made a break in the history of this community, for the
earlier settlers left at that time in numbers to serve their country.
It was not until in 1887 that the settlers were back in numbers 
sufficient to establish the Sanco Community.  And it was in that year
the cemetery was started, the first store was built, the first post 
office, the first school, the first church and the first blacksmith
shop were set up.

AGE BETRAYED

The weathered limestone rocks in the cemetery, used as grave markers 
for those who died in the early years of the community, betray the age
of the community.  Names that were once lettered thereon are weathered 
away.

Many graves are unmarked, and the Sanco Cemetery Assn. now is making a
survey to establish identification.  When this is done identification 
will be printed on a permanent plot of the original two acres donated 
as a burial ground by Miller Bird who came here in 1887.  He was buried
in 1920 in the plot he gave to the community and his wife followed in
1925.

Tour of the cemetery clues the visitor to history of the area, for here
are buried members of the family of J. L. Durham, whose wife was the 
first postmaster here.

Durham himself carried the mail between Fort Chadbourne and Sanco.  
Durham's Peak still bears the name for the family, and the Durhams
lived about the base of this mountain for years.  Durham had a lime 
kiln, and the remnants of an old barn reveal his handiwork.

PROVIDED STONE

Durham also provided stone for the earliest burial plots here.  The 
stones were used to establish borders for the burial plots, some being
built up several feet.  He erected a sarcophagus-like burial place for
his son, F. L., who died Aug. 20, 1898.  Where he was buried is not 
indicated.

There are other names in cemetery plots remindful of the history of the 
area.  William Scarborough operated the first store.  He was born 
May 8, 1830, and died July 11, 1913.  Known as Grandpa Scarborough by 
community citizens, there was inscribed on his tombstone:  "Goodly 
Father, we know where to find you."

L. S. Bird, who donated the land for the church, came in 1887.  The old
Methodist Church still stands, but it has been reconstructed using a
part of the old building.

M. B. Ulmer and Ben Bilbo, buried here, were the first sheepmen to fence
their lands and establish small flocks.

CHISELED EPITAPHS

Usual, but in the deeply religious feeling of the day, are the epitaphs 
chiseled into the stone markers.  One monument of a style erected by 
Woodmen of the World - and there are several such in the area - had this
legend:  "Not erected by Woodmen of the World."  What happened remains 
only to be surmised.

Another epitaph said:  "To him we trust a place is given among the 
saints with Christ in heaven."

On the stone marking an infant's grave, there was this:  "Weep not papa
and mama for me for I'm waiting in heaven for thee."  On another 
infant's stone was this:  "Beautiful lovely she was but given a fair 
bud to earth to blossom in heaven."

The old cemetery, crumbling ruins, and the descendants of some of the
early pioneers still here provide a tie that brings back visitors year
after year.  These ties, too, provide the incentive for plans now under
way to observe, the 70th anniversary of the community next year.

June 3 this year when the community had a homecoming, 275 persons 
signed the register.  With this response as a beginning, the Community 
Assn. is making plans for next year, and committees will be named to
bring up to date some of the history of the early settlers.

I. A. Bird, now 74, is one of the remaining settlers who got here in 
1887.  He was rewarded with a rose at the recent gathering as the first
to come and remain here.  Coke Austin of San Angelo also received a 
bouquet as one of the first born in the community.  His birth was in
1889.

WORK TOGETHER

The cemetery association and the Community Assn. work hand in glove to 
keep alive the traditions of the area.  The cemetery association 
meeting Thursday night made plans for the fall planting of trees and
shrubs for the cemetery, the resting place of perhaps 200 persons.  
It was this group that erected a large storage tank and drilled a well,
an improvement that cost close to $1,8000.  But the well, producing
only about a gallon per minute, fills the tank, and water is then 
released to keep vegetation alive in the enclosed area.  Memory of the
surviving relatives stays green as well, inspiring the effort that 
shortly may transform the burial area.

Ulmer Bird, descendant of some of the early settlers, well acquainted
with the loare of the land, reminds that there are those who dispute 
some of the allegations fo the Butterfield Trail.

He is convinced, however, that one of the eroded ditches nearby is that
which was started in the ruts of the old wagons that came this way.  
There is reference in the Butterfield records to the stage stand 16 
miles west of Fort Chadbourne on Grape Creek.  That could only be the
Grape Creek that after the Civil War became Yellow Wolf Creek in order
to avoid confusion with the Grape Creek south of the divide in Tom 
Green County.  Bird asserts that the route was changed after the Civil 
War and after abandonment of Fort Chadbourne, swinging south in order
to enjoy the protection afforded by soldiers nearby at Fort Concho.

Bird likes to think that the live oak tree at the crossing 300 yards
northeast of the present store, burned on the west side, is the one 
that was damaged when the Indians burned the stage there.  The story 
is that a roving band of about 30 warned the stage hands a month
before when they took some horses that better ones must be provided or
they would return and kill them all.  They kept their word, and the 
scarred tree remains.

One of the attendants was shot in the face, receiving a bad wound, but 
he escaped with a companion and reached Fort Chadbourn where an army
surgeon was able to save his life.  The old tree has been dying ever
since, and branches on the west side are scarred and dead.

In its history there is reflected some of the tenacity, both of 
vegetation and of humanity, to live.  Back when the early settlers came
Grape Creek, or Yellow Wolf, was a flowing stream, kept alive by 
springs.  Today, due to drought much of the creek basin is as sear as 
the hills around it.

The spirits of Sanaco and Yellow Wolf would hardly recognize this happy 
hunting ground today.  And as for the name of the community, it is a 
contraction of the name of the old chief who was friendly with the 
white settlers.

Permission granted by San Angelo Standard-Times for publication in the
Coke County TXGenWeb Archives