Caldwell Masonic Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place. Now, some cemeteries just hold the dead. This one holds a whole county's worth of living history, and that's a different thing entirely.

The Caldwell Masonic Cemetery, sitting in Burleson County, carries more than two thousand seven hundred burials within its grounds. Two thousand seven hundred. You let that number settle a moment before you drive past it.

This is not a small story. Warren Lodge No. 56 is where it formally begins, in 1890, when the Lodge purchased this land to serve as a Masonic cemetery. But here's the thing the marker wants you to know: the land wasn't empty when they arrived.

There were already at least three burials on that property, dating all the way back to 1860. Somebody was here long before the Lodge drew up the paperwork. The tombstones themselves do the talking after that.

Czech names. German names. The heritage of the families who settled this corner of Texas is carved right into the stone, right there for anyone willing to slow down and look.

Veterans of war. Local officials. Ordinary people who built their lives in Caldwell and Burleson County and never left, not really.

In 1950, the Masons conveyed the burial ground over to the Caldwell Cemetery Association, and it opened up as a public cemetery from that point forward. And then came 1964, when Lake Somerville was created, and a whole other community of the departed needed a new home. The burials from the Krueger Cemetery were relocated here, carried over and settled in among the rest.

Two thousand seven hundred souls, Czech and German and Texan and Masonic, veterans and neighbors, dating from 1860 on forward. One piece of ground holding all of it. That's not just a cemetery.

That's a county remembering itself.

What the marker says

With more than 2,700 burials, this cemetery is a significant reflection of the heritage of Caldwell and Burleson County. It began as a Masonic cemetery in 1890 when Warren Lodge No. 56 purchased land here for that purpose. There already were at least three burials on the property at that time dating to 1860. Tombstones reflect the Czech and German heritage of the area and mark the resting places of war veterans, local officials and others who lived and worked in the area. In 1950, the Masons conveyed the burial ground to the Caldwell Cemetery Association and it became a public cemetery. It also contains burials from the Krueger Cemetery, relocated here when Lake Somerville was created in 1964. (2001)