John H. "Shorty" Brown Cemetery

San Saba's population fell below 900 by 1900, but a Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe branch line reached it in 1911, and by 1925 it had 2,000 residents. The town came through the Depression without dramatic losses. In 1938 the San Saba River flooded a third of the city, yet the population rose 30 percent in that decade, to more than 2,900 on the eve of World War II. After a postwar peak of 3,400, the drought of the mid-1950s set it back, and the count fell to 2,336 in the early 1980s.

What the plaque says

John H. "Shorty" Brown Cemetery After living for a time in Arkansas, John H. "Shorty" Brown (1817-1896), his wife Jane Ann, and some of their children came here. Brown helped found San Saba in 1854 and became a civic leader. Although San Saba County provided a graveyard, Brown and his wife deeded this plot near their home for a family burial ground. Jane Ann, who bore 17 of Brown's 21 children, was probably the first burial here about 1874. Brown's son and a son-in-law who were murdered are buried here along with other family members and friends. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Bend State Park — 17 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.

More markers nearby

• San Saba County — steps away
• San Saba Lodge No. 225, A. F. & A. M. — 0.3 mi
• San Saba Lodge No. 612, A.F. & A.M. — 0.3 mi
• Alma Ward Hamrick — 0.4 mi