Concrete Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Concrete Cemetery, out in Guadalupe County. Now settle in, because this one's got more layers than you might expect from a patch of ground alongside the road. Six point eight one four acres.

That's the measure of Concrete Cemetery, and inside those borders you'll find Anglo and Hispanic citizens of the La Vernia and New Berlin communities buried side by side, more than eight hundred souls in all. Pioneer settlers, infants and children, veterans, members of fraternal organizations. The ground doesn't much distinguish between them anymore.

But let's start closer to the beginning. A local farmer and rancher by the name of James Henry Newton brought his family here from Mississippi about 1851 or 1852. And when his brother Joel died in 1856, James designated a portion of his own property as a burial ground.

That's the kind of decision a man makes when grief arrives before any official arrangement does. But here's the thing. By the time Joel went into the ground, someone had already beaten everyone to it.

The oldest recorded burial in this cemetery belongs to a woman named Maria Madden Dial, laid to rest in 1855, a full year before James Newton ever thought to set land aside. The ground had already chosen its purpose. Now, you might wonder where the name Concrete comes from.

The area had been called Bethesda before that. In 1858, a concrete building went up and served the community as a school, a church, and a Masonic Hall all at once. The community and the cemetery both took the name from that building.

James Newton made it official in 1875, deeding a two-acre tract of land for use as a community cemetery. Proper and recorded. Then, years later, the first documented burial in the adjacent Hispanic section took place in 1913, when Paulita Salazar was laid to rest there.

The cemetery kept growing, kept receiving. Additional land came through donations by the descendants of J. G. and Jennie Scull.

And the gravestones themselves, well, they're described as a diverse collection, each one reflecting the historic communities this ground has always served. More than eight hundred burials, and the site is still active. Still serving the area.

Some places in Texas just decide early on what they're going to be, and then they keep right on being it.

What the marker says

Encompassing 6.814 acres of land, Concrete Cemetery includes within its borders burials for both Anglo and Hispanic citizens of the La Vernia and New Berlin communities. The area surrounding the cemetery was called Concrete (formerly Bethesda). Local farmer and rancher James Henry Newton, who brought his family here from Mississippi about 1851-52, designated a portion of his property as a burial ground when his brother Joel died in 1856. The oldest recorded burial, that of Maria Madden Dial in 1855, indicates previous use as a graveyard. The community and cemetery were named for an 1858 concrete building used as a school, church and Masonic Hall. James Newton officially deeded a two-acre tract of land here in 1875 for use as a community cemetery. The first documented burial in the adjacent Hispanic section is that of Paulita Salazar in 1913. Additional donations of land were made by the descendants of J. G. and Jennie Scull. The graveyard contains a diverse collection of gravestones reflecting the historic communities it serves. Among the more than 800 burials here are pioneer settlers, infants and children, veterans and members of fraternal organizations. The site continues to serve the area. (1997)