DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for Fayetteville Brethren Church Cemetery in Fayette County — here's how I'd tell it around a good fire. Now, there are cemeteries, and then there are places where an entire people's story is pressed into the ground like seeds waiting to be read. Ross Prairie is one of the second kind.
The congregation buried here belongs to the Unity of the Brethren — and not just any chapter of it. This is Texas' second oldest congregation of that faith, with roots reaching back to the early 1850s, when their members first settled out on Ross Prairie. Czech and Moravian Brethren, planting themselves in Fayette County soil before most Texans had ever heard a word of their language.
And what a mark they made early. In 1855, this group hosted the very first Czech worship service in the state of Texas. Let that settle on you.
First one. Ever. Right here.
By 1870 the congregation was formally organized, and one year after that — 1871 — an educational society called Osveta established the first Czech-English school in Texas in this community. These were people who understood that language is a lifeline, and they were not about to let it fray. In 1874, a couple named Thomas and Katerina Jecmenek stepped forward in the way that quiet, generous people sometimes do.
Thomas, born in 1844, and Katerina, born in 1840, donated the land on which a church, a parish house, and a school would be built. They also set aside the ground we're talkin' about right now — this cemetery. The earliest dated stone belongs to a woman named Katerina Roznovak Jecmenek, born in 1850, who died in 1875.
She was the wife of Martin Jecmenek — Martin being Thomas's brother, born in 1852, who would himself be gone by 1885. There are unmarked graves here too, older silences whose names the ground has kept to itself. Then there's the Reverend Jindrich Juren.
Born 1850. He was called to this congregation in 1876, and he served them — as pastor and schoolmaster both — for some forty-five years. Forty-five years of sermons and spelling lessons, of guiding a community through all the ordinary and extraordinary turns a life can take.
He died in 1921, and he rests here among the people he tended. Among the veterans honored in this churchyard is one Confederate soldier: Jan Hruska, also known as Johann, born in 1831, died in 1894. This cemetery's full name, in the beginning, was the Czech-Moravian Brethren Evangelical Cemetery at Ross Prairie.
Long name. Big name. A name that carries the weight of a people who crossed an ocean, crossed a continent, built a church, built a school, buried their children, and kept going.
Chronicled here, the marker says, are the lives of pioneers and generations of families that form the heritage of the Ross Prairie area of Fayette County. That's not just cemetery talk. Walk the rows, read the stones — and the ones you can't read — and you'll find that Texas was built by more hands than most history books care to count.
What the marker says
Originally known as the Czech-Moravian Brethren Evangelical Cemetery at Ross Prairie, this site serves Texas' second oldest congregation of the Unity of the Brethren, whose members settled here in the early 1850s. This group hosted the first Czech worship service in the state in 1855. In 1870, the congregation was formally organized, and one year later the educational society, Osveta, established the first Czech-English school in Texas in this community. In 1874, Thomas (1844-1925) and Katerina (1840-1882) Jecmenek donated land on which to build a church, a parish house and a school. They also set aside land for this cemetery. A number of unmarked graves exist here, but the earliest dated stone is that of Katerina Roznovak Jecmenek (1850-1875), wife of Thomas' brother, Martin (1852-1885). Significant to church members is the grave of Reverend Jindrich Juren (1850-1921), who was called here in 1876, serving the congregation as pastor and schoolmaster for some 45 years. Veterans of our nation's wars who are honored here include one Confederate soldier, Jan (Johann) Hruska (1831-1894). Chronicled in this churchyard are the lives of the pioneers and generations of families that are the heritage of the Ross Prairie area of Fayette County. Historic Texas Cemetery - 1999