Center of Brenham hospitality for 122 years. Originally a two-story log stage depot adjoined by a log cabin complex called the Washington County Hotel. Changed owners several times through the years. General Sam Houston once stayed here while campaigning against secession. Renamed St. Anthony Hotel 1914, by new owner Mrs.A.A. Hacker, who did extensive remodeling. Served as a transfer station for train passengers and as a bus terminal. Her hotel was noted for more than 30 years for its hospitality and annual Christmas Day open house and egg nog party.

In 1875, a large, two-room pole building furnished with staple groceries and ammunition became the first trading post in Texas above the Canadian River. The stockade, located in Indian-infested country, was fittingly named for the fierce Zulu tribe of Africa. It began as a buffalo camp which crack hunters Jim and Bob Cator (from England) had made the first permanent Panhandle residence at Christmas, 1873. In 1876 Zulu became a major depot on the Ft. Dodge-Ft. Bascom military road, and it eventually received a post office contract. It was finally abandoned, 1912.

Known throughout West Texas as "A city within itself," Thornton's Store was one of Abilene's leading businesses for nearly seven decades. E.L. Thornton (1896-1964) moved to Abilene from Arkansas in 1919, after service in World War I. He opened a fruit stand in 1919, followed by a grocery store in 1920. Joined by his two brothers, Thornton soon expanded his business. In 1925 he added dry goods, followed by a drug store and feed store in 1929. Radio and refrigeration departments were added in 1931. By 1937 Thornton's filled an entire block of Oak Street, adding a cafe, a beauty shop, and shoe department. In 1941 a franchise for selling new Studebaker cars was added. The one-story properties were renovated in 1947 into a four-story structure of more than 100,000 square feet. Thornton's was famous for its Christmas displays. In 1959 the largest fire in Abilene's history gutted the Thornton property. Reconstruction began at once. After the deaths of E.L. Thornton in 1964 and his son Charles Eugene Thornton in 1965, surviving family members sold their interests to a chain store based in St. Louis. Thornton's continued in business under new ownership until 1985.

Many Czech and German immigrants settled in this area in the mid-1800s. After many years without the services of a Czech-speaking priest, the Czech community sent Konstantin Chovanec and John Vychopen to ask Galveston Bishop Claude-Marie Dubuis for help. Encouraged by Dubuis, the Czech community organized St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and erected a sanctuary in Fayetteville in 1870.

The Rev. Joseph Chromcik arrived on Christmas day in 1872 to minister at St. John Baptist Church and became the first Czech-speaking priest in Texas. The church prospered and in 1875 the Chromcik School was opened. A mission church was established in nearby Warrenton in 1886. Chromcik extended his missionary work throughout the region and remained in Fayetteville until his death in 1910. A new sanctuary was erected in 1911 and a new 2-story school built in 1915 during the pastorate of the Rev. John Vanicek. A convent for the Sisters of Divine Providence was built in 1964. A new sanctuary was erected in 1969, and a parish hall, educational center, and other facilities were added over the years.

St. John the Baptist Church is representative of the area's Czech heritage and continues a tradition of leadership in the region's Catholic community.

Organized in July 3, 1875, and born of the Bacon Presbytery in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Stanger Springs Church began with 27 charter members under the leadership of the Rev. J.W. Vance. The church building, originally made of pine and sweetgum boxing planks, stood on land owned by Eliza and John Stanger. Also on the Stanger land, directly across from this site, stood the Stanger school, known as the Union Grove School, until 1929. The turn of the century brought many changes. In 1889, local Methodists began worshipping here. The two denominations shared their resources equally. Many families claimed both Presbyterian and Methodist members for over a century. "Ruf" Stanger deeded the Stanger land to the church and school in 1896. The Bacon Presbytery became part of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. in 1900. In 1956, a new brick church was built. The 1950s also saw the origin of an annual homecoming on the second Sunday in September. An additional acre of land was deeded to the church by two former members in 1992. Non-denominational since June 1, 1995, the members of the renamed Stanger Springs Community Church continue such programs as a Christmas Mission Fund.

Micham Main of Illinois was granted a league of land by the Mexican Government in 1835. One of the area's first brickmakers, Samuel M. Warden, died while working on Main's estate on Christmas Eve in 1847. He was interred on this site. According to oral history, Warden's grave was marked only with bricks of his own manufacture. His is believed to have been the first burial in this cemetery.

Virginia native Henry Clay Swanson (1822-1906), a former member of the Alabama State Legislature, moved to Texas with his brother, James Madison Swanson, their families and slaves in 1851. "Colonel" Henry C. Swanson owned a farm east of Palestine and later operated a mercantile store in town. He purchased the land around the cemetery from Elisha Main, Micham Main's son and heir, in 1854.

The slaves and former slaves of Henry Clay Swanson and James M. Swanson, as well as African Americans from Anderson County and neighboring areas, were interred on this site. Descendants of slaves attended funerals here from 1872 to the late 1940s and early 1950s. A young girl was among the last interred in the well-populated burial site in the late 1940s. Others buried here include Tom Swanson, a former slave from Virginia to whom Henry Swanson willed $100, and two of his brothers, as well as their descendants.

Thirty-six marked and approximately 23 unmarked graves are believed to grace the cemetery. This is the final resting place of many of those whose labor built Anderson County, Houston County, and the State of Texas.

A hundred people--faculty and students of Add-Ran Christian University (situated 1876-1895 at Thorp Spring)--reached Waco by train and marched 3 miles to this site on Christmas Eve 1895. By invitation, Add-Ran began to operate that day in unfinished building of Waco Female College, which had given up its charter after functioning since 1857. Add-Ran in 1902 became Texas Christian University. The "Horned Frog" began publication. School spirit was high, but on March 22, 1910, fire destroyed the school. Financial inducements caused T.C.U. to rebuild in Fort Worth.

Cabeza de Vaca Peak, elevation 7,152, is eight miles north from where you stand on the scenic point. History records that these rugged limestone mountains, from which stones were hewn and spring water was drawn to build El Paso, were named for the early-day settler, Franklin Coontz.

The southern point of these mountains has served through the centuries as a beckoning guidepost to a friendly haven for the natives, weary pioneers and modern-day travelers.

Here the first lighted air-beacon between the west coast and the Mississippi was erected in 1928.

On the slope above you, at Christmas time, a huge and bright star sheds its light upon the grateful peoples of El Paso and our sister city of Juarez.

Founding father of Karnes County, Ruckman was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1848 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and taught in South Carolina for a year. But the lure of Texas -- then a frontier state where land was cheap and opportunity boundless -- brought him on Christmas morning, 1850, to San Antonio. In 1851 he started a trading post in the little Mexican settlement of Alamita, located on the Old Ox-Cart Road between San Antonio and Goliad. Other businessmen followed his example, and soon Ruckman was able to build a gristmill near the San Antonio River, enlarge his store, and erect a stately home. Soon after, Ruckman took as partner Dr. L.S. Owings, and together they foresaw a metropolis arising at this important and inviting roadstop. Their store once stood near the site of this marker. In 1852, they laid out a new town, which they named "Helena", in honor of Owings' wife. When Karnes County organized in 1854, Helena was chosen county seat. Ruckman was postmaster here, 1854 to 1857, and he continued nearly 40 years as leading merchant and banker. In 1872, he helped found the Helena Academy. He is buried in the Masonic Cemetery of Helena.

According to family tradition, Charles Nathan Tilton was a cabin boy and boatswain's mate for the pirate Jean Laffite. Records show that Tilton came to Texas about 1829. He married Anna Barber, the 15-year-old daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Barrow Barber, in 1831. They made their home in this area.

Tilton fought in the Texas Revolution, returning home during the "Runaway Scrape" to ensure the safety of his family. In 1838 he was granted a headright including 1,496 acres of land near this site. The Tilton family lived for a time on Matagorda Peninsula, where they named their home Tiltona and Charles engaged in shipping and cattle ventures. The land speculator and Congressman Samuel Maverick adapted his brand from Tilton's when he bought Tiltona and 400 heard of cattle in 1847. The Tilton family returned to Chambers County that same year.

Between 1853 and 1860, Michael Chavenoe, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto and a Tilton family friend, died while visiting the family. Charles and Anna Tilton set aside an acre of land for a family cemetery at that time. Charles Tilton died in 1861 while in Galveston attending to his freight hauling business. He was interred here on Christmas Day. Anna Tilton died in 1883 and was buried beside her husband. Charles and Anna's nine children and their descendants continued to use the family graveyard. Veterans of the Texas Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War are interred here. Cared for by Tilton descendants, the cemetery remains as a chronicle of early Texas pioneers.