Chappel Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Chappel Cemetery in San Saba County tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, if you want to talk about old Texas, the kind that puts down roots so deep you can still feel them, you point yourself toward Chappel. This settlement was already taking shape back in the eighteen fifties, making it one of San Saba County's earliest.

That's not a small thing. The eighteen fifties in this part of Texas, that was the frontier, plain and simple. At the center of this story stands a man named Joab B.

Harrell, born in 1814, died in 1893, and in between those two dates, he left a mark on this county that outlasted him by a long stretch. He was San Saba County's first Chief Justice. First.

Not second, not somewhere in the middle. The first. Now here's where the story gets quiet for a moment.

Because before Joab Harrell ever put pen to paper on any official document, before he formally deeded a single acre, he had already buried his own son at this very ground. That was some fifteen years before 1886, when he made it official. Think on that.

A man watches his child go into the earth, and when the time comes to decide what this land should be and who it should belong to, he gives it. All sixteen and a half acres of it, deeded formally to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The M.E.

Church anchored this community, along with a school and a store. Those three things, a place to pray, a place to learn, a place to trade, that's the whole architecture of a frontier settlement right there. The cemetery itself is a chronicle.

That's the word the marker reaches for, and it's the right one. The burial ground chronicles the lives of pioneers and the families that make up Chappel's heritage. Generation after generation, written not in ink but in stone.

And to make sure those stones are still standing for the generations ahead, the Chappel Cemetery Association was established in 1976, dedicated to the site's preservation and perpetual care. Perpetual care. A first Chief Justice who gave the land.

A community built around a church, a school, and a store. And somewhere in that ground, the son of the man who gave it all. Some places earn their history.

Chappel paid for its in full.

What the marker says

Chappel, established in the 1850s, is one of San Saba County's earliest settlements. The land for this cemetery is part of 16-1/2 acres donated by Joab B. Harrell (1814-1893) that he formally deeded in 1886 to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Harrell, the county's first Chief Justice, had buried his own son at this site some fifteen years earlier. The M.E. Church, a school and store served as the center of this community. This burial ground chronicles the lives of pioneers and families that are Chappel's heritage. The Chappel Cemetery Association was established in 1976 to ensure the site's preservation and perpetual care. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2001