Bethlehem Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the marker at Bethlehem Cemetery tells it. This land has a long memory, and it starts before Texas was even Texas. The ground beneath Bethlehem Cemetery was first granted to a man named Josiah Lester by the Mexican government, back when this part of the world still answered to a different flag.

Then independence came, and the land passed on, as land tends to do. A subsequent owner by the name of Erwin Brown looked out over his property sometime in the 1850s and decided a community needed more than just acres. He set aside land for a school and a church, and along with those two pillars of frontier life, the site began to serve as a burial ground as well.

Three purposes on one piece of earth, which tells you something about how settlers made do with what they had. The earliest documented grave belongs to Susan J. Burdett, who died in 1854 at the age of thirty-nine.

Her name is the oldest anchor in this ground. And she is not alone in what that soil holds. A number of children's graves rest here too, and that fact doesn't need much embellishment.

Frontier life was hard on the young, and these small stones attest to conditions that were, by the marker's own honest word, often harsh. Bethlehem Cemetery still stands in Washington County today, a visible reminder of the people who came before, who built schools and churches on granted land, who buried their neighbors and their children, and who left this ground as their most lasting testimony.

What the marker says

Located on land granted to Josiah Lester by the Mexican government prior to Texas independence, this cemetery began in the 1850s after subsequent land-owner Erwin Brown set aside land for a school and church. The site also served as a community burial ground, and the earliest documented grave is that of Susan J. Burdett, who died in 1854 at age 39. Also located here are a number of children's graves, attesting to the often harsh conditions of frontier life. The cemetery remains as a visible reminder of Washington County's pioneer heritage.