The Pioneer Picnic was a splendid success. The only thing missing was YOU if you didn’t make it. Thirty-one people were there with twelve first timers. The oldest was the matriarch of the cemetery, Helen J. Sullivan, while the youngest was her seven month old great-great granddaughter, Charlotte Hosler. (Charlotte is a ninth generation Dallas Texan.) Descendants of the Glovers, Beemans, Hunnicutts, Moores and Coxes, as well as DCPA members were present.
In the late 1960s, Helen J. Sullivan found the W. W. Glover Cemetery covered with tall grass, weeds and green briars. She found many tombstones vandalized and in a pile termed “rubble” in a later sketch. Thereafter along with the Old Scyene Historical & Genealogical Society she raised money to survey and fence the cemetery. Along the way she recorded the names on the tombstones and had contact with many descendants of those buried in the cemetery. These old timers gave her many names of their family members buried there whose tombstones were missing.
You never know what you might learn at one of these events. A descendant of one of the families shared this great tale involving the outlaw Cole Younger and Rowell Hunnicutt, “According to the story, Rowell and Cole Younger were out on the town one evening. My grandfather always said Cole was drunk, and I suspect maybe both possibly were. The circus was in Dallas, and they went to the circus. At one point in the evening Cole announced to Row, that he was going to shoot the circus master. He pulled his pistol, cocked it, and about the time he took aim to shoot, Rowell pushed his arm up, and the tent roof ended up with the hole, not the circus master.”
Remember to mark the first Saturday in May, 2023 as the date for next year’s Pioneer Picnic.
