DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every old Texas town has its secrets, and San Antonio is no exception. But some secrets aren't buried deep — they're buried right out in the open, if you know where to look.
Alamo Lodge Number 44, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered in 1848. That's a lodge with roots, friends. And by 1853 and into 1854, those brothers were lookin' around at their growing city and realizin' something that most folks prefer not to think about — that sooner or later, every member of the lodge was going to need a particular kind of real estate.
So they purchased this property. Not for commerce, not for congregation, but out of concern, as the record puts it, for the need of a burial ground for their fellow Masons. Now here's where the story gets quiet for a moment, because it deserves to.
The oldest remaining marked grave in this cemetery belongs to S. Fredericca Hummel, born in 1829, gone by 1854. She was a native of Germany who had come to San Antonio in 1847.
She arrived young, she made this city her home, and she did not live to see thirty. Her marked grave is the oldest one still standing in this ground. The first Masonic burial here, though, came a year after the land was secured.
A Missourian named Charles Taplin died in 1855, and the lodge laid him to rest in this place they had set aside. One of the earliest Masonic grounds in all of Texas. That's not a small thing.
This cemetery holds the graves of many immigrants — men and women who crossed oceans and prairies to settle San Antonio through the 19th and into the early 20th centuries. Different homelands, different stories, but all of them found their final address here. San Antonio grew up around this cemetery.
And in a way, this cemetery helped grow San Antonio — because a place where people can be properly remembered is a place where people decide to stay.
What the marker says
Chartered in 1848, Alamo Lodge Number 44, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, purchased this property in 1853-54 out of concern for the need of a burial ground for fellow Masons. The oldest remaining marked grave is that of S. Fredericca Hummel (1829-1854), a native of Germany who came to San Antonio in 1847. The first Masonic burial was for Missourian Charles Taplin, who died in 1855. One of the earliest Masonic grounds in Texas, Alamo Masonic Cemetery contains the graves of many immigrants who settled in San Antonio during the 19th and early 20 centuries. (1984)