Eanes Cemetery

Duane's take

The marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Out in eastern Travis County, sometime in 1874, a piece of ground was set aside for a particular kind of purpose. Not for crops, not for cattle.

For the dead. For the travelers who passed through and didn't make it home, and for the residents who called this corner of Texas their home until they didn't anymore. Before this cemetery existed, if you didn't have your own family graveyard, well, the question of where you'd end up was a real one.

The establishment of Eanes Cemetery answered that question. Now, the land didn't just appear. It was donated.

William and Sophia Teague, early settlers of the Eanes community, gave that ground. And they didn't stop there. They also deeded part of their property for a church and a school.

Think about that for a moment. One family, carving out pieces of what they had built so that a whole community could bury its dead, educate its children, and pray under one roof. Walk through that cemetery today and you'll see the full range of what memory looks like over time.

Some graves are marked only with fieldstones, plain and silent, no name, no date, just a rock pulled from the earth to say: someone is here. Others carry limestone or granite markers, a little more permanence, a little more voice. The earliest legible tombstone belongs to Mike M.

Teague, and it dates to 1895. A Teague, resting in Teague-donated ground. Whether that means everything or nothing, the marker doesn't say.

But it's the kind of detail that tends to sit with you on a long stretch of Texas road.

What the marker says

The establishment of this cemetery in 1874 provided for the burial of travelers and residents of eastern Travis County who did not have a family graveyard. The land was donated by early Eanes settlers William and Sophia Teague, who also deeded part of their property for a church and school. Some of the burial sites are marked only with fieldstones, while others are identified by limestone or granite markers. The earliest legible tombstones is that of Mike M. Teague, dates to 1895. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986