2009-02-19

Clean up progressing on black cemetery

Contributed

Local history buffs see the light at the end of a decades-long tunnel as real progress has been made recently on clearing the Hendrick Arnold-Bertha Tryon Cemetery in Bandera.

Once cleared, the final resting sites of a number of Bandera County’s early black residents will be marked and fenced, said Gene Turner. Turner heads a committee of the Bandera County Historical Commission (BCHC) currently overseeing the project. BCHC member Carl Holt has organized the recent clearing of the lot.

Under the terms of former commission chairmen Peggy Tobin, Carolyn B. Edwards and Dan Wise, members of the BCHC have worked since the 1960s to have the cemetery reflect a proper respect for those buried there.

A major sticking point in the early days of the effort revolved around obtaining a clear title to the property. The one-acre site on the corner of Houston Street and Old Medina Highway was originally set aside as “a burial ground in which only negroes are to be buried” by Mrs. Charles Montague in 1922. In the intervening years, an impenetrable mass of cedar, poison ivy and briars covered the lot.

In 1993, the family of Bertha Tryon, a long-time local resident, requested permission to bury her there. They cleared the center of the property around the gravesite. While preparing to erect a fence, neighbors questioned the ownership and boundaries of the site, and once again work came to a stop.

In 2000, the BCHC asked the Bandera Cemetery Association (BCA) to serve as an umbrella non-profit organization for the black cemetery in order to qualify it for liability insurance so that work could proceed. The BCA board agreed, but once again, the uncertainty of ownership led to roadblocks.

In 2004, former Bandera County Commissioner Jim Mormando, after consulting with the county’s tax attorney and Tax Assessor-Collector Mae Vion Meyer, came up with a plan. He determined that no taxes had ever been paid on the property, so the lot was put up for bid in a delinquent tax sale. “I even collected some money, in case we had to bid against someone for it,” Mormando said. Fortunately, no one did, and the money was deposited in a special county account for use in refurbishing the cemetery.

County commissioners then requested the other taxing entities, Bandera Independent School District and Bandera County River Authority, to transfer their interest in Lot C, Block I, Bandera Estates to the county.

Once ownership was cleared up, the county welcomed the BCHC’s willingness to continue the work of improving the site and honoring the dead.

“Local contractors and businesses have come together to see this project is completed quickly and professionally.
Brush removal is about 80 percent complete and we would like to be finished by the end of February,” Holt said. “We welcome help from anyone with experience in brush removal, fencing and landscaping.” To volunteer for the project, call Holt at 830-796-9799.

“We look forward to finally being able to mark the graves properly, erect an attractive fence and install an appropriate marker for the cemetery,” said Turner. “We need to show respect for this important part of Bandera County history.”

In addition to Tryon, the cemetery is named for Hendrick Arnold, a free man, who received 1,920 acres from the Republic and the State of Texas for his services as a soldier.

Arnold served as a guide for General Ben Milam’s division in the assault on Bexar in 1835. He also distinguished himself as “one of the most efficient members of Deaf Smith’s Spy Company” during the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, according to his commanding officers. Arnold’s land parcels touched the Medina River and lay north and northwest of the town of Bandera. The cemetery lies in part of the original Hendrick Arnold Survey #59.

In 1991, the late Louis Postert, local historian, provided a list of people he believed were buried in the cemetery.
They included John Benson, 1855-1890, whose marker has since disappeared. Another now missing marker bore the faint outline of the name “Wellencrane.” Postert also named Andrew and Mariah Jackson, Jeff Cooksey Jr., Mahalia Cooksey, Mrs. Jeff Cooksey Sr. and WD Leonard. It has been estimated that 30 or more people may be buried in the cemetery.

Prior to Tryon, the last documented burial in the cemetery was Leonard in 1944. In a recent interview, Alfred Anderwald recalled helping excavate Leonard’s final resting place.

“The grave was nine-feet long because Leonard was seven feet tall,” Anderwald said. “We had to use a compass when digging his grave to make sure it was east to west as is the custom in most cemeteries.”

Leonard had served as a local handyman in addition to being employed as caretaker of the Bandera County Courthouse.

Andrew Jackson was listed as being 39 in the 1880 census and the area known as Jackson Holler on Schmidtke Road was likely named for him. The Holler, or Hollow, was the site of the Newtonville School, one of two for blacks in the area. The other was the Bandera School, near the Arnold cemetery. Postert pointed out another burial site, “probably older than” the Arnold cemetery near the Newtonville School.
All traces of that cemetery are now erased.

Those who love Bandera County history are trying to make sure that does not happen with the Arnold-Tryon Cemetery site.