Jones County, Texas - History - Mt. Hope Cemetery *********************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Dorman Holub Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************** The Western Enterprise Anson, Jones County, Texas Thursday, August 26, 1933 50th Anniversary Edition TELLS OF FIRST GRAVES IN MT. HOPE CEMETERY By Jonnie Colbert The following is Carr Spraberry's story of his early experiences couched in his own language as reported in a recent interview. When I first reached the neighborhood of where Anson now stands, it was the middle of the afternoon, about 20 October 1879. We drove up with a 10 gallon water keg half full of water. The keg had been filled that morning at the Clear Fork River, 8 miles away, and we knew of no water any nearer, I told my brother, Jack Spraberry, and my brother-in-law, C.H. Partin. We'd go down to the creek bed and look for water, first thing. We took a grubbing hoe and a spade and to the creek bed we went. Dry as a chip. But we soon struck water we needed and to spare for everything. Our camp was about 50 steps away. That water hole was about 200 yards from the dam of the present Lake Anson. After all the stock were watered, Partin said we'd go up to the shinnery and shoot a wild turkey for dinner tomorrow. Partin had been an old buffalo hunter, and he carried with him a buffalo gun. I did not take my gun. We went about a mile up to what is now known as Oak Grove. Suddenly Partin called out, "squat!" "squat." I squatted in a hurry. We had baked turkey for dinner next day. We got back to camp before dark. It had been cloudy all day. We had come that day from south of the Clear Fork, 10 or 15 miles north of Buffalo Gap. We had all been in Hamilton County, Texas, coming originally from MIssissippi. Shortly after arriving, a man by the name of Smith, his wife and daughter came by from Phantom Hill, saying he had heard that Spraberry had found a well of water. I'd like to explain here that prospectors coming out here always made inquiries at Phantom HIll about water. In a week or 10 days after Smith's arrival, came another man, J.W. Johnson by name. He'd heard about the water. He made the same inquiries about the water that Smith had made. I replied that as far as I could judge there was plenty. He drove across the branch right where the Pearce house on the Dr. Stephen's farm is. Smith stayed until May and Johnson until June moving from there to the present John Heald homestead. Later he sold out to Henry Randolph. The first person buried in the Anson cemetery [Mount Hope] was Mrs. Mary Jane Riley, who lived in the Scott-Nichols camp, where the first city lake was located - that is on Red Mud. It was about a mile from out camp. ONe night they sent a good-sized boy from this camp (we called them camps, not colonies) for me to go to Phantom Hill for a doctor for Mrs. Riley who had pneumonia. I was to follow the crooks and bends of the shinnery to Jackson's ranch where Nugent now stands, then hug the shinnery for the balance of the road. There was a plain road from the ranch on to Phantom Hill. I ate supper and started. I became very thirsty, and really suffered, later coming to a hollow where cow trails were thick. Must be water near I said to myself. The trails got bigger and bigger, and finally I found water. I knelt down at the pool and drank, and stayed half an hour, taking two more swigs of water. A day or two later I met a man who asked me how many dead cows there were at that pool. "I saw none and tasted non." said I. "That water tasted good to me." Said the man, "There are nine dead cows in that pool, and it was not over 20 steps long." I got to the river. Drank more water. When you get right thirsty for water, I'll tell you, any water is good. I know; for, as you see, I have tried it. It was four miles from the river to Phantom Hill. The doctor was not there. He had gone that afternoon to Albany. He divided his time, I think, between Phantom HIll and Albany, staying mostly in Albany. I had been told if I could not get the doctor, to buy mustard spririts of nitre, and pills. This I did, and started back. I got back at break of day. They had just laid Mrs. Riley out. I had left at sundown, and I rode a good horse down on the trip. You understand the reason I hugged the shinnery so close was to keep from getting lost. I slept that night. Next evening at sundown, Henry Partin, my brother-in-law, and I started in a hack back to Phantom HIll for a coffin for Aunt Mollie Carr. She was my Uncle Claud Carr's first wife. Aunt Molly took sick in the afternoon and died about daybreak. Something like cramp colic. Partin and I, on the way to Phantom Hill for Aunt Mollie's coffin met Louis McCormick, the Methodist preacher, coming with Mrs. Jane Riley's coffin. Mrs. Riley was buried that night. She was the first to be buried in the present Anson cemetery. Mrs. Carr was the second. The third was a man named Dykes. He was killed by his half-brother in Dickens County, where the brothers had range cattle. The brothers had quarreled over a tent. The body was brought to our camp in a wagon, by the dead man's two little boys, eight and 12 years old. Their mother had told them to bring the body to Grandpa Carr. He was a good man she said, and would see that it was buried. He had already been dead five days. So we buried him in the same clothes he was killed in. This was about the last of February. The mother lived in a dugou, or tent on California Creek. The half-brother, who killed the man, came with the little boys part of the way. The mother went back to her people, I think, as soon as she could. The oldest document on record in Jones County is a bill of sale this woman gave to my uncle, Claud Carr, about 1 May 1880, conveying to him two cows and calves for $30.00. Mr. Carr bought the cows and offered to buy them thru the little boys to help their mother out. He had the deed recorded. This is a record of the people who were in our camp that first winter: Carr Spraberry (myslef), 24 years old Mrs. Lucy Spraberry, my mother Miss George Spraberry, 18 years Miss Vickie Spraberrry, 16 years Taylor Spraberry, my brother, 21 years Jack Spraberry, my brother, 11 years. Jack was small for his age Henry Partin, my brother-in-law, his wife and child Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Carr, my grandparents, later known in Jones County as "Grandpa and Grandma Carr" Mrs. Julia Carr, my widowed aunt-in-law and her four children: Jim, Jesse, Wiley and Willie Claude Carr, my uncle, and his two children: Ida and Howell Gent Carr, my uncle Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their little girl Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Johnson and one child Mr. Godwin, a Campbellite preacher, who lived with the Smiths P.S. Tipton, the Baptist preacher, his wife and three children Young Warner and his friend. Altogether in our camp, men, women and children, there were 34 people. Most of us were kins-people. Mr. Tipton, who, by the way built the first hotel in Anson, called the Tipton Inn, married my aunt. She was a Miss Carr, and had married a Mr. Spraberry, my cousin. She had two Spraberry children, a boy and a girl. Mr. Tipton was a widower when she married him, and he, also, had a boy and a girl. Later on the Spraberry boy married his step-sister, Miss Tipton, and the Spraberry girl married her step-brother, son of Mr. Tipton. My uncles, Howell and Waddy Carr, came to Jones County respectively in 1881 and 1885. In May they dug a well at Mr. Scott's camp on Red Mud. It was 10-12 feet deep. They had to dig 4-5 feet before they struck water. We never, in our camp, had any need to dig or worry about water. Water, you know is the first thing a prospector looks for. He has to have it. There were about three or four places that we knew about within a radius of five or six miles where you could dig down and get water. In my camp we had no more deaths or sickness after Mrs. Carr's death, except that the little Smith girl and Mrs. Partin had pneumonia. Both got well. We had no medicines except Tutt's pills and mustard. And we didn't need any other. Button willow which grew on the creek was good to run a fever down. I put up an adobe building for my mother and sister. The others had tents and wagons. My brothers and I selpt in a wagon all winter, and were comfortable. We had no colds all winter. In the Scott-Nichols camp they had mumps and whooping cough, which they caught in Dublin. They had no measles. I should expleain that an adobe building was just shinnery logs, with dirt plastered in the logs. This dirt or clay was plastered over the roof, logs and in the cracks in the walls. The government reservation for Indians was at Fort Griffin about 40 miles away. They were moved in the spring of 1880. There was only one tribe of Indians around here, the Tonkawas, or Tonks, as they were called. I have found the remains of their camps many times, but I never ran on them in camp. They were always just gone by a few hours. In the latter part of March, came three wagons, each driven by one man. They had come from Belle Plains, six miles south of where Baird now stands. The T.P. railroad was not yet built. They went to work on it in the 188s. These three wagons contained lumber to complete the first store, indeed, the first house, ever built in Anson. It had been arleady partially completed, being of lumber, some all ready put up. The store was owned by McD. Bowyer, who still lives in Anson. Besides the lumber, these three wagons contained dry goods, some drugs, and groceries, not a big stock, but a good variety.