Waresville Cemetery
Utopia, Uvalde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Waresville Cemetery is one of the last reminders of the Old Waresville Settlement on the Sabinal River established by Captain William Ware (1800-1853). Ware came to Texas in 1828 and first settled in Montgomery County. He fought for Texas independence at the Siege of Bexar and the Battle of San Jacinto. During his military service Captain Ware saw the Sabinal Canyon and decided to bring his family here to settle in 1852. Unfortunately, a few months after building a cabin, he became ill and died. His burial in March 1853 on his property was the beginning of the Waresville Cemetery. By 1880 the Waresville Community boasted a cotton gin, a gristmill, a sawmill, two flour mills, two churches, homes, and a school. In 1886 Waresville was renamed Utopia for its location and climate. Those interred here include members of the Ware Family and other early settlers; Henry Fuller, former slave of Captain Ware; victims of conflicts with local Indians; and descendants of early Waresville pioneers. The older part of the cemetery is still bounded by its original fieldstone fence. In 1951 the cemetery was surveyed and deeded to the Waresville Cemetery Association. 1991
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Waresville Cemetery is nearly all that remains of the Old Waresville Settlement on the Sabinal River, founded by Captain William Ware, a San Jacinto veteran who brought his family to the Sabinal Canyon in 1852. Ware fell ill and died within months, and his 1853 burial started the graveyard. By 1880 Waresville had grown into a thriving village of mills, gins, churches, and a school before being renamed Utopia in 1886. Among those buried here are the Ware family, Henry Fuller—a former slave of Captain Ware—early settlers, and victims of conflicts with local Indians.
Why it matters
This single hilltop cemetery holds the whole social world of a frontier Texas settlement—its founders, its formerly enslaved members, and those killed in frontier violence—in one enduring record.
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Related people
- · William Ware
- · Henry Fuller
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Waresville
Utopia, TX
Founded in 1852 by San Jacinto veteran Capt. William Ware, Waresville was the first nonmilitary settlement in Uvalde County, a cluster of log and native-stone homes tucked into Sabinal Canyon. Life on this frontier was perilous: settlers were lost to Indian raids between 1856 and 1866, and Ware himself was buried in the colony cemetery in 1853. Though the post office moved on to nearby Utopia in 1883, the cemetery, early homes, and the site of the first store still mark where the canyon was first settled.
Utopia
Utopia, TX
After an 1886 Indian raid on their nearby home, the Kincheloe family relocated here, built a home and a two-story rock store, and platted a town they first called "Montana," donating land for churches, a school, and a square. Congregations gathered even before the town was formally founded, and a postmaster later rechristened it "Utopia" in praise of the climate. The frontier settlement grew into a center for ranching and, in time, retirement and recreation in the Hill Country.
Joe A. Kelley Home
Utopia, TX
One of the few pioneer homes still standing in the Utopia community, this two-room house with back shed rooms was built in 1865 by Joe A. Kelley, whose family had reached Old Waresville in 1852. Kelley bought several thousand acres from Lusgarda Grandee and established a ranch crossed by the old Sabinal-Comanche trail. Its shiplap exterior and beaded ceilings preserve the craftsmanship of early Hill Country settlement.
In This Vicinity June 24, 1841, Captain John Coffee Hays
Utopia, TX
In June 1841, near this spot in the rugged hill country of the young Republic of Texas, Captain John Coffee Hays led a small company of Texas Rangers, aided by allied Mexican fighters under Captain Flores, in a sharp clash with a band of Comanche warriors. Such encounters were the grim, constant reality of a contested frontier where Rangers, settlers, and Comanche bands fought for control of the land. The State of Texas marked the site in 1936.