A few rocks which once marked graves ... a weather-aged walk ...some scattered flower racks.

A touch of the past - Edward Bailey kneels beside the site of any old prisoner of war grave in a section of land adjacent to the Jordan Springs Cemetery.  The men buried there have long since been moved to their native land but the site is still fenced off and a few reminders of World War II remain. (Brownwood Bulletin Photo)

Almost forgotten in a corner of the Jordan Springs Cemetery are only a few reminders of what was once a burial ground for a handful of prisoners of war brought here during World War II.

This section, fenced off from the rest of the cemetery, was once reserved exclusively for Italian prisoners of war who succumbed to illness while interned at sprawling Cam Bowie.

The BROWN county military base was home to several thousand Italians captured during the war.  And those who did 't survive their internment were laid to rest in an area six miles from Brownwood on the Brownwood Country Club Road, adjacent to the Jordan Springs Cemetery.

Remains of prisoners who were buried here have since been removed to their native country, according to Edward Bailey and Jay Connaway who own land near the cemetery.

The care of the small graveyard became the responsibility of risoners of war who lovingly tended the cemetery as they wroked in nearby vegetable gardens, Connaway said.  He recalls only some five men were buried there.

Work in the gardens and the cemetery afforded the prisoners of war ways to make POW camp days seem shorter and in addition the garden frunished some food to brighten prisoner of war diets.

A BARN on the old Bailey place was kept intact and on land near the cemetery.  But now it 
's 1969 and gradual changes have alered the appearance of Camp Bowie.  The Bailey family rebuilt their home on the site where it was located prior to World War II.  As a link from the pst the old barn still remains.

And not too far away weeds and brush are almost all that remain in the secluded cemetery where at lest five prisoners of war were once buried.

Those who pause at the entrance of Jordan Springs Cemetery and look far past the graves to this small fenced off section are reminded for the first time in Americn history, prisoners of war lived an died in Brown County.