"Son," a wise old man once said, "always marry a Texas girl. No matter what happens, she's seen worse."



Nina Seawell Hannold Grave"

Nina Seawell Hannold
Aug 26 1880
Sept 30 1911

Buried in Big Bend National Park

An accompanying sign reads:
"This grave site is one of the few visible traces of Curtis and Nina Hannold's pioneer homestead. In 1908 the Hannolds moved here from Oklahoma by covered wagon. While Nina took care of the ranch and three children, Curtis supplemented their income by teaching school in Dugout Wells eight miles away. At age 29, Nina contracted uremic poisining during pregnancy, and died September 30, 1911. She asked to be buried on this hill overlooking the spring where she had often read to the children in the shade of the cottonwoods."

What you cannot see is the small homemade stone marker behind the more modern headstone. And more importantly, what you cannot see is the sacrifice pioneer women and men made to settle these great expanses of wilderness. Brewster County Geneological Society has a short history of Nina and her husband, Curtis Hannold.



Maybe Thomas Rusk, once the Republic of Texas' Secretary of War, said it best:
"The men of Texas deserved much credit, but more was due the women. Armed men facing a foe could not but be brave; but the women, with their little children around them, without means of defense or power to resist, faced danger and death with unflinching courage."

Nina, and women like her, helped tame this wild state:

"In May 1867, Susan Newcomb summed up her feelings of isolation: "I am lonesome Oh! very lonesome . . . I actually think it is almost a sin for a person to live where they scarcely ever see anyone and are always lonesone. We have been living here over a year and there has been one woman to see us, only one."

In her diary, Susan commented occasionally on the wind and the sand storms of West Texas. While it annoyed Susan to have her wash ruined by the wind-blown dirt, the constant wind sent some pioneer Texas women into deep depressions. A few were disturbed to the point of insanity, while it drove others to leave West Texas for regions that had trees. . .and gentle breezes. "

Adds a new meaning to the truth of the old Texas proverb, that it is "a great country for men and dogs, but hell on women and horses."