On a ranch located in the eastern-most edge of the Black Jack Community,
on the banks of Rocky Cedar Creek, there is a lone wooden tombstone.
According to the old-timers in the area the grave is that of a cowboy who
was riding as a drover with a herd in the late 1880's. The trail
had been diverted from it's normal course along what is known as the Chisholm
Trail because the Trinity River and all it's tributaries had flooded
and the trail had been moved eastward to higher ground. Legend has
it that this cowboy drowned while crossing the creek and was buried near
where his body recovered from the water.
 The tombstone has markings on the side which faces east which were at one time probably the man's name and date of death, however, time has claimed any epitaph and so he remains only "the Chisholm Trail Cowboy". In the fall of 1987 Kathey Hunt was taken to the site by Mr. Roy Stovall, a long-time Kaufman County resident who is now deceased. He had played near the gravesite as a child circa 1900-1910 while visiting his aunt & uncle's farm. He said his aunt had planted flowers in the area of the grave. In the Spring of 1990 the site was revisited & the place was covered in yellow iris and antique pink tea roses, which shows that evidently someone was aware of the burial site many years ago and planted the flowers there so the grave would not go unnoticed. Photographed October 1990 by K K Hunt |
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