DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Coletoville Cemetery has to say — and friend, it's the kind of story that starts with grief and ends with community, which is about as Texas as it gets. Now, picture a German settlement called Steinerville, established in 1849 out in Victoria County. Hard-working folks, tight-knit, building something from the ground up.
August and Thekla Spitzer were part of that world. And then diphtheria came calling. Epidemics don't negotiate.
When that sickness hit Steinerville, it took two of the Spitzer children. Henry, ten years old. Robert, just six.
Their parents buried them in 1872 — right here, on this very ground. You let that sit for a moment. Parents laying their children into the earth they'd worked so hard to make a home.
But here's the thing about grief in a close community — sometimes it shapes something lasting. In May of 1872, August and Thekla Spitzer deeded that land to the trustees of the new school and the evangelic German church of the German community of Steinerville. Out of loss, a shared place.
The community itself was later renamed Coletoville, for the nearby Coleto Creek. And both Thekla and August Spitzer — the very people who gave this ground — are buried here too, among the neighbors they helped shelter. The oldest birth dates in this cemetery belong to Eva Voigt and Joseph Weiser, both born in 1812.
Several veterans of major American and international conflicts are interred here as well, their rows keeping quiet company with the farmers and families around them. Now, the way this cemetery is organized — and this part is worth a slow word — burial sites are marked in rows and spaces rather than in plots, and graves are arranged in consecutive order by date. Not by family name, not by status.
By when you arrived. There's an equality to that you don't see everywhere. Many of the oldest markers were originally made of sandstone.
Time has had its way with some of them. A count done in 1997 turned up 623 marked graves and 78 unmarked ones. Seventy-eight lives with no stone left to speak their names.
For a long stretch, the church and the cemetery were one institution. Then in 1970, the church — by then known as Martin Luther Lutheran Church — deeded the cemetery land to the Coletoville Cemetery Association, making the two separate for the first time. And yet, community members of all faiths have traditionally been buried here.
The deed changed hands, but the welcome never did. Started with two children and their grieving parents. Became a place for an entire community across generations.
Some stories don't need embellishing. This one just needs telling.
What the marker says
When an epidemic of diphtheria hit the German settlement of Steinerville, established in 1849, two of August and Thekla Spitzer's children died. Ten-year-old Henry and six-year-old Robert were buried by their parents in 1872 on this site. In May of 1872, the Spitzer's deeded the land to the trustees of the new school and evangelic German church of the German community of Steinerville. The community was later renamed Coletoville for the nearby Coleto Creek. Both Thekla and August Spitzer are buried in the cemetery. The oldest birth dates are those of Eva Voigt and Joseph Weiser, both born in 1812. Several veterans of major American and international conflicts are interred here. In 1970, the church, now called Martin Luther Lutheran Church, deeded the cemetery land to the Coletoville Cemetery Association. The church and cemetery became two separate institutions for the first time, though community members of all faiths have traditionally been buried here. Burial sites are marked in rows and spaces rather than in plots, and graves are arranged in consecutive order by date. Many of the oldest markers were originally made of sandstone. A 1997 count revealed 623 marked and 78 unmarked graves. (1997)