Saint Jo, Montague County
A community sprang up here about the beginning of the Civil War. It was one of two settlements, along with Burlington (Spanish Fort) sited along the Red River in Montague County. After the Civil War, nearby Red River Station became the favored crossing for Longhorn Cattle going up the Chisholm Trail. The community here was known as Maxwell, Maxville or Wardville in its early days. The name Illinois Bend is thought to derive from the former home state of some of the first settlers. The name was fixed by 1877, when the Illinois Bend post office opened. The community had a school, several stores, a cotton gin, churches, and lodges in the 1930s. Multiple ferries operated across the Red River, and a bridge was in use until 1935. The origin of the community burial ground is unknown. The earliest marked grave is for Nancy Smith (1873), and unmarked graves from that period are likely. In 1880, John and Sarah Elliot officially deeded the cemetery with 1.953 acres of land designated for use as a burial ground and school. Records show that the first school, a log cabin called valley branch school, opened in 1877 adjacent to the cemetery. Historic gravestone materials include marble, limestone, granite, sandstone, fieldstone, concrete, and ceramic photographs. An open-air tabernacle predates 1917. The traditional “graveyard working” day was the first Saturday in August (later moved to April), also functioning as a homecoming for those who had moved away. Later, caretakers for the cemetery were hired, maintaining graves and addressing erosion along valley branch with sandbagging and construction of a levee. The Illinois Bend Memorial Cemetery Association cares for this significant chronicle of the community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2011