Boehnke Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Boehnke Cemetery, out here in Fayette County. In 1867, Michael and Anna Boehnke made their move. They purchased 430 acres of land, and on that land they farmed, raised livestock, and reared nine children.

That is a full life by any measure. A homestead humming with work and family and the kind of stubborn hope it takes to build something from raw Texas ground. But the land that feeds you can also bury you.

And in 1873, the Boehnkes learned that truth the hardest way a family can. One of their newborns, a child named Ernest, died. And when they laid that baby to rest on the property, something was established that no deed of purchase had planned for.

A family cemetery. It began with grief, the way so many lasting things do. Over the years, seventeen individuals came to rest in that ground.

Headstones of granite, limestone, and concrete mark their locations. Among those seventeen are two non-family members, neighbors welcomed into that final fellowship. The cemetery kept growin, quietly, across the decades.

And then, in 1967, the last burial took place. Michael and Anna's granddaughter, Mellie Biebas, was laid to rest there. A full century, nearly, after that first sorrowful grave.

What the marker says about this family is worth sayin out loud: in spite of hardships, they kept their faith, they succeeded in developing character, and they maintained strong relationships with their neighbors. Seventeen headstones in Fayette County, and every one of them is evidence of that.

What the marker says

In 1867, Michael and Anna Boehnke purchased 430 acres of land where they farmed, raised livestock, and reared nine children. Sadly, in 1873, one of the Boehnkes" newborns, Ernest, died. His burial on the property established the family cemetery. The last individual buried in the cemetery is Michael and Anna's granddaughter, Mellie Biebas, who passed away in 1967. Headstones made of granite, limestone, and concrete mark the locations of the seventeen individuals buried here including two non-family members. This cemetery provides a record of a family who in spite of hardships, kept their faith, succeeded in developing character, and maintained strong relationships with their neighbors. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2016