Evergreen Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Evergreen Cemetery in Bee County. Now, every town worth its salt has got a piece of ground set aside for the ones who've gone on ahead, and Beeville is no different. It all starts with a woman named Anne Burke, who back in 1859 donated Block 1 of the Beeville original townsite.

Just gave it. Set the whole thing in motion. The land passed to G.W.

McClanahan first, but by 1862 the county had bought it outright, and they had a name for it too, plain and honest as the Texas sky: the Public Burying Ground. No poetry, just purpose. Then 1872 rolls around, and the place starts to grow.

A man named H.W. Wilson donated a northeast strip of land. More ground came in on the northwest side as well.

And the Court, recognizing that this place deserved some dignity, gave its consent for a fence. A fence around the dead. That's a community saying: these people matter, this ground matters.

Years passed, as years do, and the cemetery fell into the kind of quiet neglect that time has a way of bringing. But in 1970, Evergreen Cemetery was restored. Someone looked at that old ground, thought about Anne Burke and her 1859 gift, about the county stepping up in 1862, about H.W.

Wilson adding his strip in 1872, and decided it was worth keeping. That's the thing about a cemetery. It only survives if the living decide it should.

What the marker says

Block 1, Beeville original townsite, donated 1859 by Anne Burke. First owned by G.W. McClanahan, land was bought 1862 by county for "Public Burying Ground". In 1872, H.W. Wilson donated northeast strip, land was added on the northwest, and Court gave consent for a fence. Cemetery was restored in 1970. (1970)