Chamberlain Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is Duane, and we're talkin' about Chamberlain Cemetery in Kleberg County. Pull over if you want, because this one's got layers.

It starts with cattle, winds through a railway, and ends up as the final resting place of some of the biggest names in South Texas history. Let's back up to the turn of the twentieth century. Ranchers in this part of Texas had a problem: good cattle and no efficient way to move them.

Henrietta King, owner of the King Ranch, joined with other area ranchers to do something about it. Together, they brought the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway through the area all the way to Brownsville, and that happened in 1904.

The railway needed a headquarters, and a new town called Kingsville rose up to fill that role. Mrs. King and her son-in-law, Robert J.

Kleberg, didn't stop there. They formed the Kingsville Town and Improvement Company to sell ranch land in and around that new townsite. A town needs a lot of things, and one of them is a place to bury its dead.

In 1908, the Kingsville Cemetery Association purchased a forty-acre tract from the company. That tract already held something: a portion of property that had been the location of many earlier burials. Then in April 1909, a cemetery was formally opened.

And here's where the name comes in. It was named for Henrietta King's father, Hiram Chamberlain, a noted minister who organized the first Protestant church on the southern Rio Grande. That's the kind of man you name something after.

Running a cemetery is its own kind of work. Charles H. Flato, president of the Cemetery Association, sold lots right out of his business, the Kingsville Hardware Company.

And then there was Clyde M. Allen, a Kingsville merchant, who stepped up as a non-paid manager of the cemetery. Non-paid.

For the next fifty years. Let that settle for a second. Now, the cemetery's most prominent resident is Henrietta King herself.

She was buried there upon her death in 1925. That same year, Captain King and a son and daughter were moved from their original burial places in San Antonio to the King family plot at Chamberlain Cemetery. A family reunited, in a manner of speaking, on the land they had shaped.

But the King family isn't alone in that ground. Uriah Lott is buried there too, a visionary builder of railroads throughout central and south Texas. So is Robert Bartow Cousins, the first president of South Texas State Teachers College, the institution that would later become Texas A&I University.

And H. H. Kendall, the engineer of the first St.

Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway train to pull through Kingsville, rests there as well. The man who drove that first train through town, laid to rest in the town that train helped build. Chamberlain Cemetery reflects the history of the community, the marker says, and continues to serve Kingsville and the surrounding area.

Some places hold a town's story the way soil holds roots. This is one of them.

What the marker says

In order to better market and transport cattle from area ranches at the turn of the twentieth century, Henrietta King, owner of the King Ranch, and other ranchers joined to bring the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway through the area to Brownsville in 1904. Railway headquarters were established in the new town of Kingsville. Mrs. King and her son-in-law, Robert J. Kleberg, formed the Kingsville Town and Improvement Company to sell ranch land in and around the new townsite. In 1908, the Kingsville Cemetery Association purchased a forty-acre tract from the company, including a portion of property that was the location of many earlier burials. In April 1909, a cemetery was opened and named for Henrietta King's father, Hiram Chamberlain, a noted minister who organized the first Protestant church on the southern Rio Grande. Cemetery Association president Charles H. Flato sold lots from his business, the Kingsville Hardware Company. Clyde M. Allen, a Kingsville merchant, served as a non-paid manager of the cemetery for the next fifty years. Mrs. King was buried in the cemetery upon her death in 1925. Captain King and a son and daughter were moved later that year from their original burial places in San Antonio to the King family plot. Also buried in Chamberlain Cemetery are Uriah Lott, a visionary builder of railroads throughout central and south Texas, Robert Bartow Cousins, the first president of South Texas State Teachers College (later Texas A&I University) and H. H. Kendall, the engineer of the first St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway train to pull through Kingsville. Chamberlain Cemetery reflects the history of the community and continues to serve Kingsville and the surrounding area. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2008