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Old Saltillo Cemetery Association President Vivian Dennis-Monzingo examines a Woodsmen of the World gravestone inside the Old Saltillo Cemetery. Staff photo by Todd Kleiboer
Plans are being made for the Annual Old Saltillo Cemetery Association Business Meeting and Memorial Day to be held at 10:30 a.m., July 18, 2021, in the Old Saltillo United Methodist Church, located at 664 County Road 3357.
The program will begin with congregational singing led by Steve Conley. After the opening ceremony, a business meeting will follow that includes a formal report of the activities of the Board of Directors, the financial position of the Association, plans for the coming year, and the election of three Board of Director members for the 2021-2024 term.
Keeping with tradition, a memorial program eulogizing loved ones buried in the Old Saltillo Cemetery will be conducted.
Family members present will be asked to stand during the reading of a short verse. After the reading, a star will be placed by Kelli McAfee Tarver, Ginnifer Agee Doyle and their daughters on a painting in remembrance of the loved ones.
Those honored during the program will be all who have been buried in the Old Saltillo Cemetery from July 19, 2019 – July 18, 2021.
After the program, Steve Conley plans to offer a special musical presentation.
The Old Saltillo Cemetery has received the very prestigious recognition by the Texas Historical Commission with an Official Texas Historical Marker. A dedication ceremony will be the program for this year’s annual meeting. John Sellers, Chair of the County Historical Commission, will preside at the dedication. The cemetery received a Historic Designation in 2018 and the historical marker completes its story.
Following the Unveiling of The Marker, lunch will be served immediately afterwards in the air-conditioned Kirby Memorial Center.
Everyone is asked to bring some of their favorite dishes – enough to feed all in their party and to share with others.
Lunch will be served in a buffet manner with all eating utensils, plates, iced drinks, and coffee provided.
Seating in the serving area is limited; however, space is plentiful under the huge oak trees around the church.
Feel free to bring lawn chairs, card tables, etc. to enjoy lunch and fellowship with others in attendance.
At 1:30 p.m., an unveiling ceremony will be held approximately one-half of a mile north of the church/cemetery on County Road 3357 to dedicate an Official Texas Historical Marker for the Old Jefferson Road.
HISTORY
The Old Saltillo Cemetery originated in the 1870s as the final resting place of a child who died near Saltillo, while traveling the Jefferson Road with his family.
The child’s name and burial plot are unknown however, there were two marked burials from 1873, one from 1875, one from 1876, and two each from l878 and l879.
Beginning in the early 1930s, annual memorial services were held at the Old Saltillo Methodist Church.
In order to raise money for the upkeep of the cemetery at Old Saltillo, men of the community sold concessions during the noon hour and all afternoon during their memorial day services. They sold soft drinks; candy bars; and even ice cream from canisters stacked in wash tubs filled with ice.
In the afternoon children stood near the concession stand, located under the oak trees north of the church building, hoping that a generous adult would supply them with sodas and ice cream. After all, the money went for a good cause.
In the l940s and the 1950s, the annual observance was an all-day event, but in more recent years the celebration ends with the noon meal.
By 1960, services were being held on the third Sunday in July.
In the 1840s, Old Saltillo was just a camping ground with no name, located where two old byroads crossed at the edge of the prairie in the Eastern part of Hopkins County, about one-half mile from the Franklin County Line.
About 1842, the Jefferson Road, with right of way sixty feet wide, was cut and passed through the camping ground. The Jefferson Road ran from Fort Worth, Dallas and surrounding points to Jefferson, Texas’ principal river port at that time. The local branch of the Jefferson Road began at Mount Pleasant and went west to Old Tarrant, which at that time was the county seat of Hopkins County.
The Jefferson Road was everyone’s road. An occasional stagecoach would use the road as an alternate, and at times a troop of Calvary would follow the road a piece.
Today there are vestiges of the Old Jefferson Wagon Road. Its roadbed is still visible in places. When it was in use, they let trees grow at its edges to prevent erosion. For the most part its path is now on private property.
Aerial photos and satellite images show the roadbed here and there. One can still find traces and fragments of the old stores’ foundations and chimney at Twin Groceries (Old Saltillo).
Information in this message concerning the history of the Old Saltillo Cemetery and the Old Jefferson Road was taken from the application to the Texas Historical Commission. Sponsor Name: Dr. Montie G. Monzingo, dated 8/21/18.
We hope that you will be able to attend part or all of the events schedule for Sunday, July 18, 2021.