|
a.
|
Note: Margaret had a family of six sons and three daughters, all of whom, except for her last child Mary Margaret, reached adulthood in the community of Hutto,Texas.
A hundred and twenty odd years after the fact.
On May 27, 1881, at the young age of 47, Margaret, mother of all known descendants of James E. Hutto Sr., died and was buried along side her youngest daughter, Mary Margaret, in the Shiloh Cemetery some three miles southeast of the town of Hutto, Texas.
We visited the Shiloh Cemetery in March, 1998 and found it an old and forgotten cemetery that is occasionally attended too. It is on a hill that rises 20 ft above the surrounding terrain and is next to Brushy Creek. It was said that one could drive across the creek at the old Shiloh crossing which again is just down from the cemetery in a car a few years back. The location was supposed to have been on the Chisom trail and cattle drives crossed at this point frequently in years gone by. Shiloh was the primary town in the area before the Railroad was put in , resulting in the founding of the town of Hutto. Over the years Shiloh became a ghost town as Hutto prospered and the only reminder that the town ever existed is the cemetery. The fact that the hill seems oddly out of place on the banks of the Brushy Creek, which by the way seems to flow year round and is more like a clear stream than the old creek we all grew up on with its blackish green color. I thought it, the hill, might have been an old Indian mound of sorts.
The grave of Margaret is over grown with saplings and weeds and the tombstone, a large tall pyramid styled marker lies on the ground. The base of the tombstone is tilted forward slightly as a result of the soil moving over the many years it was placed there some 117 years ago.
The family plot is guarded by an old ornamental iron fence about 6' x 6', reflecting the style used in the late 1800s. Generally the enclosing of a grave plot with such a fence would be some indication of wealth on the part of the family.
Three and 1/2 year old little Mary Margaret is buried next to her mother. Her mother, followed her daughter a short 8 years later in death. Little Mary Margaret's tombstone is still in an erect position but some what soiled from the 125 years of weathering it has withstood.
Hugh Davenport, a local resident and friend of the Hutto family, shared that on occasion the sheriff's department would bring inmates out to clear the weeds and clean up the cemetery, but those activities have been sparse.
The iron fence surrounding the grave site is bent on the north end from a crushing fall of a large tree said Hugh. Hugh said he burned the old tree stump out of the plot and a gapping hole, the size of a small tree stares back at one as you view the scene. It looks like maybe the tree was there just yesterday, and yet there are no indications of anything having burned.
Hugh said that he cleaned the grave site up 3 or 4 years ago.
The gate that allows entrance to the site is entangled in trees, saplings of 2 and 3 inch diameter. I could not open the gate. Becky had to climb the fence to get a closer look at the grave stones.
We plan to go back this summer and clean the site up. Maybe we can reposition the head stones base and reset the head stone of our ancestor.
There was a strangeness about seeing one's family grave site in a state of disrepair. But then it was strange finding this old grave site and establishing a connection to a person that I had never known but now some what mourn, after the fact. A hundred and twenty odd years after the fact.
1880 Census for Williamson County list J. E. Hutto's wife's parents as both born in Tenn.
|
