This is our first planned stop of the day. Since the heat has been sooooo bad, I decided to do this outside tour before the temperature climbs past 100 degrees! Since we were unable to reserve a tour guide based on the size of our party, we are given handheld devices that you can punch a code in to hear about the person buried. When we went outside to begin our own tour, I was amazed at how green everything was despite the heat. It was beautifully landscaped and very pristine. The next thing I noticed was State Highway 165, the smallest state highway in Texas. This road runs right through the center of Texas and is marked with the Texas flag every few feet on either side of the road. We took a right and headed towards Republic Hill, where most of the famous people that we had heard about were buried. My son could hardly wait to find the burial site of Stephen F. Austin. I was amazed when he asked if Moses Austin was buried here, too. I asked him who Moses was (even though I knew the answer) and he replied, "Mom, that's Stephen's dad!" Along the way, we stopped at Willie Wells grave to listen about him since baseball is big in my house. Then, we saw (although, honestly, weren't too impressed with) Tom Landry's grave. We listened about Robert "Three Legged Willie" Williamson to find out what his third leg was. Turns out his knee was frozen, so he attached a piece of wood to it to use as another leg. My son couldn't contain his excitement to see SFA any longer, so we skipped over to his monument that sits in the middle of Republic Hill. We listened to his audio blurb and my son just stood there staring for several minutes. I'm not sure what kept him deep in thought, but I wasn't about to disturb it! The next burial sites we looked specifically for were those of Ma and Pa Ferguson. We took a special interest in these two since they are from Belton (or nearby), where we currently reside. It was very interesting to learn about them. I didn't know much, so it was neat to hear about Miriam running for governor since her husband, James, couldn't after being impeached. It was pretty cool discussing with my daughter that she was the first woman governor of Texas. I then sought out to find the site of Ann Richards. When I found it, it was interesting to note that her tombstone (if that's what you can call it) was very different than any other. I'm not sure if it was marble or granite, but not only did the material seem different, it was shaped completely different, too. At the bottom, there was a button someone had placed on it that said 'Hilary 2012.' Loved it! : ) We took special note of a few others and talked about them, but I was interested in heading over to the September 11th Memorial Section. We found it - there was a timeline of events from the first tower being hit to the speech that GWB gave that night at 8:30. Along with the timeline was a couple of pieces from one of the towers. My kids asked me why they looked mangled, so we had a talk about that, too. My son was 3 months old at the time, so they have no clue other than what they've been told in school. It was a somber few moments. After we left the memorial, the heat was getting the best of us, so we headed back to building to turn in our audio wands and went to view the things in the gallery. It was interesting to see the bat and ball glove of Willie Wells. Apparently he kept rocks in his glove so that when other players would run to second, he would tag them with the intention of hurting them. We also got a chance to talk about Old Yeller since Fred Gibson, the author, is also buried there. There was a video in the gallery that explained the requirements to be buried in the cemetery. This visit was meaningful for all of us, but what I especially loved was the spirit of learning my two children shared. They each asked to borrow some paper that I had brought to take notes. Ethan took down notes and thoughts when he found SFA's burial site. And, after talking extensively about Miriam Ferguson, Lauren decided that she wanted to do "research" also and copied the words from the headstone onto some paper. She found another headstone to copy for good measure. It was priceless! This was a favorite memory of mine!
State Highway 165
Cemetery Library
Pa & Ma Ferguson
Stephen F. Austin's grave
September 11 Memorial
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