Vance Cemetery

The town of Bullhead took its name from Bullhead Mountain just to the north and sat where Bullhead Creek meets the Nueces. It had a Baptist church in 1875 and a post office from July 1, 1878, and it was the first seat of Edwards County, from September 1883 until voters moved the government to Leakey in 1884. In 1886 it was renamed for Xavier Wanz, sometimes written Vance, who had come with Castro's Colony in 1845 and recovered a stolen horse herd in this country in the 1860s. The post office closed in 1955.

What the plaque says

Vance Cemetery One of the earliest settlers of this area was Henry Wells (1850-1923), who first came to the Nueces Canyon in 1866. He founded the town of Bullhead in 1873. The name was changed to Vance in the mid-1880s. In 1875 a guest in the home of the Wells Family, C. J. Fowler, died and was buried on the family's farm. The land surrounding Fowler's grave became known as Vance Cemetery. Henry Wells often worked as a coffin builder for members of the community. Rancher Z. H. Pannell (1862-1925) donated additional land in 1909 for the cemetery and a church. The Vance Baptist Church was built in 1917, the same year Henry Wells gave more land to enlarge the cemetery. In addition to the graves of Fowler and Wells, the Vance Cemetery is the burial site of many early pioneers of this area. Six Civil War veterans are interred here, as well as Veterans of World War I and World War II. Epidemics of diphtheria and influenza in the early 20th century claimed the lives of many area citizens who are buried here. The Vance Cemetery Association was organized in 1952 and is responsible for maintenance of the graveyard, which is still in use by descendants of pioneer settlers. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Real County Historical Museum — 16 mi
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.
• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area — 18 mi
  A 140-foot shaft into a cavern outside Rocksprings, seen only on guided tours from a platform at the rim as some three million bats spiral out on summer evenings.
• Garner State Park — 22 mi
  The Frio River park that Uvalde County built with the Civilian Conservation Corps and named for its own vice president, where people have danced on the stone pavilion every summer since the 1940s.
• Kickapoo Cavern State Park — 30 mi
  A lightly developed former ranch on the Kinney-Edwards line with twenty caves, a Saturday tour into a 1,400-foot cavern and a summer bat flight from Stuart Bat Cave.

More markers nearby

• Camp Fawcett — 5.6 mi
• The Pioneer Coalsons — 6.3 mi
• Site of Nix Mill — 6.3 mi
• Dixie Settlement — 6.3 mi