Rayner, Texas

Rayner was at once intriguing and again sad. It was located just south of US 380 about 8.5 miles east of Aspermont. The only structure left is the old Stonewall County courthouse, which is now a private residence for a ranch. There is also the Rayner Cemetery, which was one of the saddest things I've seen.

Regarding the old courthouse, it sits about 3/10 of a mile south of US 380, and it's visible from the road. I drove down the road/driveway and snapped a picture. It looks better than it did when Baker photographed it in 1984 in that it seems to have been fixed up.

The cemetery is about 2.2 miles south of US 380 down a county road that is about 0.1 mile east of the road leading to the courthouse. The cemetery sits off to the east about 75 yards from the road, but there is an access way (almost a driveway) that allows you to drive right up to the gate. Unlike every other cemetery that I saw on my trip, this one has been neglected. It was noted by Baker as being neglected when he photographed it in 1984, and it looked no different today. This surprised me because every other forgotten-town cemetery I saw was still meticulously kept and still in use in that there are burials more recent than the time the town was active. But, for some reason, this cemetery, which doesn't have many graves anyway, has been allowed to deteriorate.

This is the old Stonewall County courthouse in what was Rayner as photographed by Baker in 1984. Note the stone historical marker in the front left.

This is that same courthouse structure on October 31, 1999. Because it's a private residence now, I didn't get too close to take the picture. But the building is in better shape now, having received repairs and fresh paint. There are also more trees around it now. The historical marker is still there, visible just above the wheels of the right of the two cannons in the left foreground. Since there is a historical marker, I wondered if they would have minded if I had come closer to read the marker and admire the house. But I didn't stay to ask!

Information added January 17, 2006: I received an email from Brian Garner, who passed along this information about the Stonewall County Courthouse: "According to the ladies in the Aspermont library, the Rayner courthouse was going to be used as the ranch house movie set for the film "Giant" starring James Dean. However, the owner(s) didn't approve of the modifications that the film crew wanted to make so they ended up shooting the film near Marfa, Texas and built a facade to use as the ranch house. It was supposedly modeled after the courthouse."

The upper of these two photos is the entrance to the old Rayner Cemetery. The access road and the entrance to the cemetery both seemed to be in reasonable shape, so it seems that, in spite of its neglected condition, the cemetery did have at least somewhat regular visitors. As I noted above, all of the other cemeteries I visited on my trip were well cared for. They were also fenced off, although, because they are not large, one could still get close enough to read and photograph many interesting grave markers. But this had, to the right of the gate, a small revolving door-type entrance to let people in, so I went in.

The lower shot is just one view of the interior of the cemetery. Note how overgrown it is, how neglected the tombstones are, and how few graves there are overall.

A photograph taken by Baker in 1984 of one of the burial sites (a family burial site, apparently) in the Rayner Cemetery.

A photograph of the family burial site above taken by me on October 31, 1999 from an identical vantage point. Things are virtually unchanged after 15 years except for the little, rounded tombstone seen in the upper photo in the middle of the burial site. That tombstone is still there (see below), but it had fallen over. I did not think I should start fooling around and stand things up again, but it seemed sad that no one else would tend to these stones. I found a number that had fallen over. Note also the general deterioration of the stone wall surrounding the site as well as the continued growth of brush around it. The large, dead, bent over tree trunk in the foreground in the first picture is still there, but it has been cut back (whether naturally or by human intervention, I don't know).

By the way, note the dark sky in this photo! This photo was taken looking east. It was threatening rain, and the dark sky in the background seems to fit perfectly to the scene. The foreground is so bright because the sky directly overhead was clear. The line of a weather front was right overhead as I took this.

This upper of these two photos is of the fallen-over tombstone that is standing upright in the center of the burial site in the 1984 picture above. Reading the inscription, one can see that the gravestone is for a child, William Cooper McClaren, born September 25, 1884 and died March 6, 1890. His age of 5 years and 5 months is written at the bottom. The larger stone in the burial is for his mother, M. A. McClaren, who died at the age of 33 in 1891, one year after her son died. There are tributes to both William and his mother at Find A Grave.

The lower photo here is of one of the few tall tombstones that hadn't fallen over.

I noted that a large number of the other graves were for children and, in one place, there is a line of five small tombstones (see photo below), all apparently the children of the same couple, and all having died within a few days or weeks of birth in the 1890s. It was an incredibly sad scene. The stones themselves, while tilted and falling, were still well preserved with easy to read inscriptions.

The upper photo here is of those five small children's graves I mentioned above. It was the saddest thing. I looked around, but I couldn't find the graves of the parents.

The lower photo is of a tombstone that has fallen over. It is for a child who was named Carl Lanier. He was 11 years old when he was bitten by a rattlesnake and later died in spite of his parents' heroic efforts to get him to a doctor in nearby Anson, Texas. The horses were run so hard that they died as well. His story is also at Find A Grave.

Below is a close-up of the stone, and you can just make out the full word "Carl," the "nier" in Lanier, the "orn" in born, and the "ed" in died, as well as the years "1880" and "1891."

A completely fallen-apart burial site (upper photo). The metal fencing is rusted and falling down. The graves are completely obscured.

Access to the cemetery was easy. That's my rental car in the picture, and it wasn't even a pickup truck or sport-utility vehicle!

I couldn't understand why this cemetery was not being cared for. Two or three people with some pry bars and two-by-fours could probably have straightened up or reset all the fallen tombstones (none were very large) in an hour or two. I wonder if the fact that there were so few graves overall was connected in some way. Perhaps this cemetery was abandoned and a new one for the town of Rayner constructed somewhere else, although I don't know why this would be done. This cemetery is somewhat off the beaten path in the middle of open range country, but I found it with no trouble, and it was more easily accessible than some of the others I saw. Maybe it was because of the large percentage of the graves that were for children. Perhaps the place was considered jinxed. Who knows? It was the eeriest place I visited on my trip.

On August 24, 2006, I received an email from a fellow who informed me that some people have started at least in some small way to preserve what's left of the Rayner Cemetery. They have created a website where they have recorded the inscriptions on some of the gravestones where they are still legible. The link to that site is ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/stonewall/cemetery/rayner.txt. There doesn't appear to have been anything new added to these descriptions since 2000, but at least its something.