Frio Town Cemetery

A raid on W. J. Slaughter's sheep camp in the fall of 1876 is behind the row of graves the plaque mentions. A local history names the foreman, William Rittberg, among the dead and says four herders died with him, naming none and calling them only Mexican workers. The plaque counts six men buried together. Benjamin and Minerva Slaughter lie here too. Minerva, who had wanted to study medicine, trained herself to nurse and rode long distances at night to tend the sick. She died in 1895 and was buried beside her husband.

What the plaque says

Frio Town Cemetery Founded in 1871, Frio Town served as the first county seat of Frio County. A courthouse was built in 1876, and a number of families built homes in the area. The International and Great Northern Railroad built a line from San Antonio to Laredo in 1881, bypassing Frio Town. By 1883 the new town of Pearsall (16 mi. E) on the rail line became the new county seat. One of the few physical reminders of the historic Frio Town community, this cemetery stands as a testament to the county's early pioneer history. The first burials occurred in 1873, when Calvin Massey (1797-1873) was killed by Indians, and Robert Wesley Hiler (1855-1873) died in a horse riding accident. Among the pioneer settlers interred here are Ben (1813-1893) and Minerva (1817-1895) Slaughter and their descendants, as well as members of the Roberts, Hiler, Little, Loxton, Taylor, Hattox, Blackaller, and Minus families. A number of early graves are unmarked. Six men killed in an Indian raid on the William J. Slaughter sheep ranch in 1876 are buried together in a row of graves. The cemetery also contains the burials of a number of infants and small children, a reflection of harsh conditions on the frontier. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frio Pioneer Jail Museum — 16 mi
  Pearsall's 1884 county jail, the town's oldest building, used for 83 years and now a free museum with a sheriff's home downstairs and six cells above.
• Fort Inge Historical Site — 30 mi
  A county park on the Leona River below a 140-foot volcanic plug, where an army post guarded the new road to El Paso from 1849 to 1869 and Texas Rangers camped after.
• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 35 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.

More markers nearby

• Frio Town — 0.4 mi
• Tehuacana Cemetery — 12 mi
• Frio Lodge No. 399, A.F. & A.M. — 16 mi
• Frio County — 16 mi