ASADORES Ranch Cem, Hidalgo Co. Cemeteries of Tx

ASADORES (MUN´~OZ) RANCH CEMETERY

Photos by Nora Sanchez

Submitted by cshaffer@houston.rr.com (typed from records provided by surveyors)

Surveyed by Goldsby Goza and Fran Isbel on January 19 and 26, 1980.

LOCATION: The burying ground is located in Run, Texas, about a thousand feet northwest of the intersection of US 281 and Farm Road 493 south from Donna. About 300 feet down a dirt road off US 281, which skirts the school property on the west, is an east-west path through the sugarcane fields that leads directly to the cemetery gates.

SURVEYED: Joe Fallin and Dale Swartzmiller, about 1976.

PERSPECTIVE: The census was begun at the northeast corner of the plot and the rows run north to south (right to left, front to back). A wire fence about 75 x 100 feet square encloses the cemetery. Mrs. Victoria Munoz says the cemetery was originally one acre. Ranch is owned by the Harwichs of McAllen. Mr. Weisenbaker, who lives in the first house north of the Run school, who has managed the ranch for over ten years, stated that no burials had been made since he had been there. Adan Munoz, a descendant who lives on FM 493, maintains the cemetery. His parents are buried in the cemetery: Epitacio Munoz (1884-1941) and Modesta Garza de Munoz (1894-1936).

NOTE: Information provided by Mary E. Garza Reyna, great-great granddaughter of Salvador Cavazos Sr.

History: Asadores (Pokers) Ranch was located in what is now Run, Texas, near Run School. The cemetery is in a sugarcane field, and cannot be seen from the Military Highway during growing season.

As far as is known from family records and oral history, Asadores Ranch first belonged to Salvador Cavazos Gallegos and San Juana Anzaldua, his wife. Their birth dates are 1811 and 1813, respectively. Both were probably born in Nuevo Leon. The children were: Salvador, Preciliana, Dolores, Petra, Eulalia and Angelita.

Asadores Ranch was situated in the La Blanca Land Grant given by the Mexican government in 1834 to Lino Cavazos of Reynosa, a son of Matias and Manuela Hinojosa Cavazos. This land embraced five leagues of black-cattle pasturelands
or 22,140 acres. One of Salvador Cavazos' daughters, Preciliana (born 1832) married Jesus Munoz (born 1835). Their children were Dionecio (born 1858) in Lampasos, Nuevo Leon; Jesus Jr., Viviana, Prudencio, Preciliano, and Manuel. They moved to Run, south of Donna, Texas, when their son Dionicio Munoz was eight months old.

Dionicio Munoz married Francisca Dolores de la Garza and their children were:Daniel (born 1877), Candelario, Adela, Victoria, Andrea, Belen, San Juanita Antonio, and Natalia. Around 1909-1910, Dionicio and his family moved to Donna because of repeated floods created by the Rio Grande. They continued to farm at Asadores and graze their cattle there. Eventually most of the cattle were divided up among Dionicio's children. At one time, Dionicio Munoz, along with his brother-in-law Agustin Gonzales, shipped 400 head of cattle by railroad, probably to Kansas.

When the family moved to Donna, Dionicio was in charge of the mail in the community. His son, Candelario, brought the mail to Run by horseback in good weather and by horse and buggy in rainy weather. He delivered to the post office housed at the Champion store, an adobe building with thatched roof. Dionicio was the first Hispanic to set up a dry goods store in Beatrice (Donna).

When World War II came along, Candelario Munoz enlisted in the Army. When he came back, he built the first movie theater in Donna. The movies were silent at this time.

Most of the children of Preciliana and Jesus Munoz lived at Asadores Ranch. The ranch was a busy community, and the family depended on each other for support. They raised crops such as watermelons, corn, beans and Mexican squash, and also kept cattle and horses. Water was drawn from a well for home use and for the animals.

Family celebrations and weddings were very big feasts. There was plenty of food: carne asada (BBQ), cabrito (goat), salads, cakes, pan de polvo (cookies) fruits and vegetables. Weddings lasted from evening to dawn. Oblate priests who traveled from ranch to ranch married the couples. Dancing in the large living room lasted most of the night. The Oblate priest would stay the night in order to perform the early morning ceremony. This was the case in the marriage between my grandfather, Daniel Munoz, and my grandmother, Eloise Handy, which took place at nearby La Esperanza Ranch of her father, Thomas J.
Handy, a Civil War Union veteran.

Mrs. Belen Munoz Avila (93) and Mrs. Andrea Munoz Campbell (89) remember when as young girls, they were taken to La Lomita Chapel, Mission, to make their first communion. They also remember wedding celebrations and dances they
went to in McAllen, Edinburg, and Mercedes.

As for provisions, they were obtained from a store owned by the Melchor Mora family at Relampago Ranch. Mary Reyna of Weslaco has copies of an old ledger of the 1890s showing that they bought stables such as flour, rice, coffee, sugar, lard, candy and soap. In return, they sold hides of horses and mules, and also bought merchandise from the Champion store in Run.

Salvador Cavazos Gallegos and San Juana Anzaldua were the first to be buried at Asadores Cemetery in 1886 and 1887 in a large brick boveda or mausoleum. Their son, Salvador, Jr. is interred in the same tomb. Other family members were also buried there, some as late as the 1940s. In an area (5' x 7') enclosed by a rusty old fence, where there are no markers,lie buried Santiago Flores de la Garza and Secundina Chacon Flores, parents of Francisca Flores de la Garza. Santiago Flores was a prisoner of the French during the Maximilian reign in Mexico. He was held prisoner in the Islas de Maria and was set free around 1867 when Benito Juarez came into power in Mexico. One of Salvador Cavazos' daughters, Angelita, is buried at nearby Handy Cemetery, as she married Thomas James Handy, a Union soldier. (They were great-grandparents of Mary Reyna of Weslaco.) Source: Credit for this information should be given to Mrs. Belen Munoz Avila (93), Mrs. Andrea Munoz Campbell (89), Evaristo Avila (95), Mrs. Victor ia Munoz Garza, Mrs. Maria Gonzalez Reyes, Sister Maria Eloise Munoz (Order of the Incarnate World of the Blessed Sacrament), and Adam Munoz.

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ROW A

A01. JOSE RAORNUEZ (name illegible)
March ??
(This heart shaped stone is by itself)

A02. CENOBEBE BUENO
Nació ´ 2 January 1886 Falleció 14 August 1924
Edad 37 Al des Canso

A03. MARTINA YANES
2 January 1824 2 February 1926
(Double marker, left side)

AMBROSIA YANES
28 April 1925 9 February 1926
(Double marker, right side)

A04. AMBROSIA YANES
26 may 1921 27 Oct 1867

A05. Victor Yanes
30 Jun 1929 15 Jun 1928

A06. PASIDO BUENO
13 Jun 1920 2 Dec 1902

A07. ANTONIO GUERRA
d 27 Jul 1912
(Double marker, left side)

SUSANNA GUERRA
d 27 Jul 1912
(Double marker, right side)

A08. ANTONIO GERRA
27 Jul 1912
(Double marker, left side)

A09. SIMON GERRA
24 Dec 1933
(Susanna Guerra y damas hermanos.)
(Double marker, right side)

ROW B

B01. RUEINA BUENO
b = 1878 Falleció 17 Feb 1926
edad 45 Una recuerdo de su esposa E.P.D.

B02. (No marker)

B03. (No marker)

B04. (Vacant)

B05. EZEQUIEA CANTU
Nació ´ Nov 18 1930 Falleció Junio 2 1943
Padre y hermanos a su memoria E.P.D.

B06. (Vacant)

B07. (Vacant)

B08. (Old cement cross, illegible)

B09. (Cement cross, illegible)

B10. (Vacant)

B11. (Vacant)

B12. (Vacant)

Row ends 12 feet from south fence.

ROW C

C01. (Vacant)

C02. LEONARDO MUN~OZ
Nació ´ Nov 3 1867 Falleció 25 Nov 1927

C03. (A small stone with no data located between C02 and C03, possibly
an infant grave)

C04. MANUELA CANTU
Nació ´ 11 Nov 1925 Falleció Agosto 16 1947
Su madre Timotea Mun~oz

C05. (A rusty old iron fence enclosing an area 5 x 7 feet, no marker found)

C06. MARCARITA DELTORO
Feb 18 1924 Jun 4, 1952

C07. (Vacant)

C08. RANOICO DE LUNA

C09. TERESA DE SALININAO
Esposa de Rancicno Luna E.P.D.

C10. (Vacant, 6 feet east of bovedo)

C11. (Broken marker, illegible)

C12. (Vacant)

C13. (Vacant)

C14. ADAN GARZA
* 1-9-1862 + Junio 6 de 1936

ROW D

D01. (Cement cross, illegible, vacant from here to bovedo)

D02. SALDADOR CABAOS
Falleció a los 75 anos de edad ed dia 14 de Junio de 1886 sus hijos
le consafran este recuerdo
(Bovedo 10 high x 6 x 10 feet in fair condition. Marble plaque
readable as above)

D03. AMARO MUN~OZ
(no other data)

D04. MARGARITA PIN~A
7 May 1927 18 July1926

D05. JESUS MUN~OZ
D = 18 Dec 1921

D06. EPITACIO MUN~OZ
17 Aug 1941 B = 1884

Row E

E01. JOSE CANTU REYNA
21 Sept 1947 13 Jan 1896

Row F

F01. (Unmarked grave approximately 50 feet south of north fence, then
vacant to F12)

F02. EPIMENIO ALEN
(Double marker, left side)

JUAN ALEN
(Double marker, right side)

Row G

G01. MUN~OZ (no first name)
(Old cement cross. Grave approximately 50 feet south of north fence
and 15 feet east of west fence.)

G02. (Vacant)

G03. Padre GARCIA
Dic 4 de 1973 Apr 12 de 1928
Recuerdo de B Chapa y sus padres R Garcia y Padros R Garcia y G Garcia

G04. (Old cement cross, illegible)

(Vacant from here to fence)

End of Asadores Ranch Cemetery.