Damon Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. There's a cemetery out in Brazoria County that's been keeping its silence for a long, long time. The Damon Cemetery.

And the story of how it started is the kind of thing that sticks with you on a long stretch of road. It was December the thirteenth, 1837. The ground was being broken, not for a town, not for a homestead, but for a grave.

The first burial there was Sylvester Winn Damon, a relative of the family name, laid to rest on a land grant that had been issued to Abraham Darst all the way back in 1829, from Mexico. Think about that for a moment. That land had Mexican roots, and now here was a family claiming it in the most permanent way a family can.

The marker tells us that this first grave was placed within a year of the very founding of Brazoria County itself. The county was barely finding its footing, and already the land was holding the weight of loss. That first burial in December of 1837 made Damon one of the oldest cemeteries in the entire county, and it's been earning that title quietly ever since.

Now, for decades, that two and a half acres just kept its purpose without much in the way of official standing. Then came September the first, 1908. The cemetery was dedicated, and that two and a half acre tract was deeded over to the public.

What had begun as one family's grief on a borrowed piece of Mexican land grant soil became, in time, a place that belonged to everybody. Some legacies start with a grand proclamation. This one started on a cold December day in 1837, with a name, a grave, and ground that had one more story left to hold.

What the marker says

One of oldest cemeteries in county. Started Dec. 13, 1837, with burial of Sylvester Winn Damon, a relative, on Abraham Darst's land grant of 1829 from Mexico. Locating of this first grave was within a year of date of founding of Brazoria County. Cemetery dedicated and 2.5 acre tract deeded to public, Sept. 1, 1908. (1964)