My great grandparents, Robert and Sarah Kiser Shipman moved to Edwards county about 1898 with nine children ranging in age from less than one year to 24 years of age. They settled at Hackberry Texas, at a place known as Cade Hollow. They lived here till they became ill and moved into Campwood with some of the children. They both died in Campwood and were brought back to Hackberry to be buried. There is nothing left of the old home place. The house is long gone. We visited the place with Monroe Shipman. He showed us where the old house stood and the spring where they got water. We went from there to the Cemetery. There are many unmarked graves. Robert and Sarah and their children, Betty, Jannie, Minnie & Charley are all buried at Hackberry. As well as a niece, Molly Shipman and a great granddaughter, Arvilla Terry. My daughter, Sheri and I have copied the tombstones and also used the book by Helen Fred and Lou Thomas as reference on indexing the cemetery. Most of the information that is in parenthesis ()is for their book Some of the stones have no date and some graves were identified by relatives that have no stone at all. I missed some of the graves and my hurried writing was not readable in some cases and some of them were very hard to read that is where we used Helen and Lou's book to compare the names. The book "HACKBERRY, TEXAS A Brief History--Early Days--Cemetery 1880-1989" Compiled by Helen Fred and Lou Thomas. According to the book Nueces Headwater Country: A Regional History by Allan Stovall the first burial was the daughter of Ammon Billings. They came to the area in 1876. His daughter, Willie died soon afterwards and was buried near their cabin, in what would later become Hackberry Cemetery. The Cemetery is about 19 miles from Barksdale out the Vance road. It is located on a hill and very easy to miss if you aren't watching for it closely. There is a sign over the gate "1880 Hackberry-1958, placed there in 1958 by the Rural Improvement Club of Barksdale. When we were there it was fairly overgrown with weeds. It is almost totally covered with large trees. If you are coming from Kerrville to Rocksprings it is about 10 miles from Highway 41 toward Vance. According to the Hackberry book the cemetery is on about 2 acres of land donated by M.O. Grooms. It has about 30 unknown graves and about 8 known but unmarked.Anderson, Frank Sep 18 1889-Nov 20 1895 Baxter, Collin July 10, 1917-Mar 21 1918 Billings, Mary Melissa May 9 1885-Apr 14 1887 (Earliest death date remaining) Colwell Clarence D. June 20 1900-Feb 27 1988 (Clarence D. and E Isabell Merritt have a double marker-no death date on Clarence) Colwell Dan R. Sep 16 1872-Jan 26 1933 Colwell E.L. Mar 17 1901-Feb 23 1925 Colwell Infant son of J.F. & N.A. Colwell Mar 15 1903-Mar 18 1903 Colwell Isabell Dec 21 1905-Nov 9 1984 Colwell, Nannie Apr 8 1878-Jan 17 1968 Colwell R.L. Jun 12 1836-June 7 1904 Connell Leslie Aug 12 1915-July 11 1989 Cromeans Jesse Abner Dec 15 1890-June 24 1898 Dalton Sarah 1889- (Daughter of ? and Alice Dalton) Dalton Sarah J. Sept 13 1836-Feb 5 1903 Davis Annie Oct 18 1814-Mar 1 1903 (Earlest birth date remaining) Garison Mrs H.M. -----Jun 1894 Croom Son of B. & N Croom Jun15 1903-Jun 15 1903 Croom J.A. 1835-1900 Hammond Mary Magey Aug 1888-Nov 10 1894 (Daughter of M.M. Hammond) Hext Martha Ann June 26 1865-Nov 17 1895 (wife of L.L. Hext) Hicks A. Feb 13 1837-Apr 5 1917 Hicks (Son of John & Sarah Hicks) Apr 14 1901-Apr 14 1901 Hocker Celicia L. June 1 1855-July 26 1910 (wife of T.M. Hocker) Hocker Thomas Aug 30 1852-July 2 1903 Hough L.B. Feb 2 1828-Dec 15 1902 Jackson W.R. June 28 1888-July 11 1903 Jones James W. Oct 11 1844-Mar 31 1901 McCurdy Carrie July 30 1894-Nov 3 1927 McCurdy Louisa Oct 25 1859-Apr 27 1935 McCurdy Samuel Aug 15 1859-Aug 26 1947 Perkins Hetty A. Sept 13 1900-June 21 1902 Perkins Stella Leah Jan 23 1920-Mar 28 1920 Perkins Lincy J. Mar 29 1898-July 7 1924 (Wife of H.R. Perkins) Pierce Maggie Nov 11 1888-Jan 13 1900 (daughter of Loui Pierce) Routh Minnie Bell Shipman (10/16/1892--8/8/1925) Shipman Charles (3/26/1882-4/16/1928) Shipman Robert E. (4/9/1843-8/11/1930) Shipman Sarah Kiser (10/7/1859-9/26/1929) Shipman Molly Daughter of J.E. Shipman (3/23/1891-2/16/1902) Broken Stone Smith Betty Shipman (1/26/1874-12/8/1935) Tanner Ben Terry Arvella (4/1/1948-4/2/1948) Thurman Janie Shipman (9/4/1877-8/13/1918) Broken Sandstone marker Welch Son of C.L. & M.E. Welch Apr 5 1909-Apr 5 1909 Whittley Marcissas A. Aug 24 1834-July 5 1919 (Whittle Melba Rose 1928-1928 Daughter of Rosa and Wilford Whittle-Unmarked) Whittle Rosa Dec 2 1888-Jan 19 1928 (Wife of W.T. Wilfred and daughter of D.R. and Nannie Colwell) Received this with some updates on more burials in the Hackberry Cemetery-- Hi my name is Randy Hicks My GGgrandfather was Alfred Hicks, he & his wife Amanda Elizabeth Davis Hicks are both buried at Hackberry Cemetery, she was born JAN 15, 1840 died SEP. 25 1912, also her mother, Anne Wagnor Davis born OCT. 1 1813 died MARCH 1 1903 is buried there. My GGgrandfather was one of the first settlers of Hackberry settling there around 1873. He had a very large Ranch on the headwaters of the Nueces RIVER by Eagles Nest. My Ggrandfather John Hicks & my Dad Melvin Snooks" Hicks are buried at Vance Tx just down the road where alot of kinfolks are buried. Maybe we can get Historical marker for the cemetery in the future ... Thank you! Randy Hicks Lyles Ranch Box 2121 Uvalde TX Email: Randy
The cemetery was surveyed and indexed in 1992 with a second trip to clean the grounds and headstone. Those involve with the work were: Helen Fred, Lou Thomas, Laura Burleson Hicks, Milburn Colwell, Harley Wood, Bernice Shipman Duke, Karl Stone, Olen Merritt, and Judy Ledford. Others helping with identification were Mamie Colwell, Robert Ledford, Evelyn field Wood, Marjorie R. Routh, Mattie B. Dismukes, and Monroe Shipman.
