Waresville Cemetery

Four years after Ware's arrival, the canyon nearly became a socialist colony. In 1856 Victor Considerant bought 47,000 acres here from the Canon de Ugalde Land Company, financed by the European and American Colonization Society. Considerant, the international leader of the followers of Charles Fourier, had fled France for Brussels after the failed insurrection of June 13, 1849. He hoped to plant a Fourierist phalanx in the Sabinal Canyon, but the plan never took shape, because the troubles of La Reunion, his colony near Dallas, had made would-be colonists wary.

What the plaque says

Waresville Cemetery The Waresville Cemetery is one of the last reminders of the Old Waresville Settlement on the Sabinal River established by Captain William Ware (1800-1853). Ware came to Texas in 1828 and first settled in Montgomery County. He fought for Texas independence at the Siege of Bexar and the Battle of San Jacinto. During his military service Captain Ware saw the Sabinal Canyon and decided to bring his family here to settle in 1852. Unfortunately, a few months after building a cabin, he became ill and died. His burial in March 1853 on his property was the beginning of the Waresville Cemetery. By 1880 the Waresville Community boasted a cotton gin, a gristmill, a sawmill, two flour mills, two churches, homes, and a school. In 1886 Waresville was renamed Utopia for its location and climate. Those interred here include members of the Ware Family and other early settlers; Henry Fuller, former slave of Captain Ware; victims of conflicts with local Indians; and descendants of early Waresville pioneers. The older part of the cemetery is still bounded by its original fieldstone fence. In 1951 the cemetery was surveyed and deeded to the Waresville Cemetery Association. 1991

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Garner State Park — 13 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.
• Real County Historical Museum — 17 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.

More markers nearby

• Captain William Ware — steps away
• William Ware — 0.6 mi
• Utopia Baptist Church — 1.4 mi
• Utopia — 1.4 mi