Cementerio Navarro Historico

Duane's take

Here's my telling of the official marker for Cementerio Navarro Histórico, as the Texas Historical Commission records it. Now, every piece of ground has a story underneath it, and some of that ground has been quietly holding stories for over a hundred years while the rest of the world rolled on by. Out in Caldwell County, near the town of Lockhart, there is a place that goes by more than one name.

Some have called it the Mexican Cemetery. Some have called it the Woodmen of the World Cemetery. Some have called it Panteón de los Hacheros.

And today it carries the name Cementerio Navarro Histórico. Each one of those names is a layer, and each layer is a chapter. The ground started receivin its dead around 1900.

The earliest dated burial belongs to a man named Severiano Sanchez, an area settler whose marker reads 1901. From that point forward, the cemetery became the resting place of the Mexican-American community of Lockhart. Primarily Hispanic and Roman Catholic residents, the marker tells us.

Community leaders. Business owners. Farmers.

Laborers. Ranchers. Teachers.

And veterans, men who went off to foreign conflicts reachin all the way back to World War I, and who came home to this ground when their time came. Now, scattered across this cemetery you will find monuments placed by the Woodmen of the World. Those monuments gave the place one of its names, and in Spanish that name carries real weight: Panteón de los Hacheros.

The cemetery also holds vertical stones, plot curbing, and grave slabs, each one a marker of a life, a family, a stake in this county's history. Close by sits the site of the Old Navarro Elementary School, known historically as the Mexican School. That proximity is not lost on anybody who thinks about what these communities built and what they passed on.

In 2005, descendants of the people buried here decided the place deserved more than memory. They formed the Cementerio Navarro Association to restore and maintain the burial ground. And when they chose a name for it, they reached for someone who meant something.

They named it after José Antonio Navarro, the noted Tejano statesman and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. A name that carries history in both hands. The marker puts it plainly, and plainly said is sometimes best: this cemetery remains a chronicle of the Mexican-American pioneers of Caldwell County and a testament to the difficult and laborious circumstances under which they settled and thrived.

Settled and thrived. Two words doing a lot of honest work. The ground remembers all of it.

What the marker says

Also known as the Mexican Cemetery, this burial ground has served the Mexican-American community of Lockhart since around 1900. The earliest dated burial here, of area settler Severiano Sanchez, dates to 1901. Since that time, the cemetery has served primarily Hispanic and Roman Catholic residents. A number of community leaders are interred here. Others, including business owners, farmers, laborers, ranchers, teachers and veterans of foreign conflicts dating to World War I, are also buried here. Several graves are marked by Woodmen of the World monuments, which led to the burial ground also being known as the Woodmen of the World Cemetery or Panteón de los Hacheros. Other features in the cemetery include vertical stones, plot curbing and grave slabs. In 2005, descendants of the interred formed the Cementerio Navarro Association to restore and maintain the burial ground. The association named this site Cementerio Navarro Histórico after the noted Tejano statesman and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, José Antonio Navarro. The cemetery is also near the site of the Old Navarro Elementary School, which was known historically as the Mexican School. Today, Cementerio Navarro Histórico continues to serve descendants of those buried here. It remains a chronicle of the Mexican-American pioneers of Caldwell County and a testament to the difficult and laborious circumstances under which they settled and thrived. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005. Also HTC name and date plaque: Cementerio Navarro Historico Established 1901 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005