Saturn, Texas. (original) (raw)

Saturn Cemetery
Historic Texas Cemetery
Hwy 97 & FM 385
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, June 2014

History in a Pecan Shell

Originally called Possum Trot, the town was granted a post office which was open from 1902, through 1914. It's assumed that the name was under Saturn and not Possum Trot since postal authorities were known to hold decorum over quaint.

The only population figures available were from 1914 when 35 Saturnites resided there. Saturn had a telephone connection to Gonzales plus a general store, grocery and blacksmith. By 1965, there were only an estimated 15 people living there and that number was repeated throughout 1990 and 2000.

The county highway map shows a cemetery at Saturn and there is a community building as well.

Saturn Cemetery

A community began to develop near this site during the 1870s and was known by several names, including Possum Trot, Prickly Pear, and Ettowa before a post office was established under the name Saturn in 1902. Hugh and Elizabeth (Burleson) McMillan sold two acres at this site to the Good Hope Primitive Baptist Church for a cemetery in 1882. The site was already the resting place of their daughter Martha McMillan Dubose, who died in 1880. The burial ground continued to be used by the McMillan and Dubose families, as well as other members of the Saturn community. A cemetery association was formed in 1974 to oversee the operations of the cemetery, which serves as a reminder of early Gonzales County pioneers.
2007

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