Harris Cemetery
San Saba, San Saba County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial ground was apparently already in use in 1874 when A.J. and Ellen Crawford deeded it to trustees D.A. harris, A.J. Wells, James Wayland, F. Brookerson and W.L. Adams as part of a five-acre site to be used for a school and place of worship. The earliest dated grave is that of N.M. Baker (1819-1877). The 1868 stone of James L. Crawford, A.J. Crawford's father, was relocated here from nearby Crawford-Whitehurst Cemetery after a flood but his remains are lost. A physical reminder of early San Saba County history, Harris Cemetery is maintained by an association and continues to serve the community. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2000
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Harris Cemetery was already in use by 1874, when A.J. and Ellen Crawford deeded five acres to local trustees for a burial ground, school, and place of worship. Its oldest marked grave belongs to N.M. Baker, born in 1819, and one relocated 1868 stone recalls a family whose remains were lost to a flood. Cared for by an association, the site endures as a tangible record of San Saba County's earliest settlers.
Why it matters
Frontier cemeteries like this one map the arrival of the families who first put down roots in central Texas, preserving names and dates that written records often left out.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Terry Cemetery
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In 1859, Stephen Woodson Terry and his wife Volumnia Jane moved their family from Tennessee to this part of San Saba County, joining the first wave of pioneers to the area. The family cemetery has held Terry descendants and friends since 1880, when their ten-year-old daughter Pocahontas became its first burial. Stephen served the frontier community as its tenth county sheriff, and later kin like Judge Lloyd Warden Terry carried the family's public service forward.
San Saba Lodge No. 225, A. F. & A. M.
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Freemasonry ran through the founding of San Saba County, whose organizers were largely Masons; when the first courthouse rose in 1857, the county let them meet there. San Saba Lodge No. 225 received its charter in 1859, drawing county officials, Texas Rangers, and frontier settlers, and its members promptly built a combined school and lodge hall—seeding the San Saba Masonic College chartered in 1863. Financial strain during Reconstruction and a damaging association with the vigilante 'San Saba Mob' led the lodge to surrender its charter in 1882.
San Saba Cemetery
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Originally the Odd Fellows Cemetery, this burial ground began in 1883 when the local IOOF lodge bought ten acres north of old San Saba and maintained it for forty-five years. In 1929 the newly incorporated San Saba Cemetery Association purchased the grounds and additional acreage for token sums, and in 1935 burials from the town's earliest city cemetery were reinterred here. The cemetery stands as a continuing record of San Saba's earliest citizens and its changing community.
San Saba County Courthouse
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San Saba County was created by the Texas Legislature in 1856, and a frame courthouse and later a stone one served its people on this site through the nineteenth century. In 1910, with the city newly incorporated and a railroad connection on the way, residents authorized a grand replacement. Alabama architect Walter Chamberlain designed this Classical Revival building of pressed brick and rusticated sandstone, finished just as the first train arrived in August 1911.