Frydek Catholic Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Frydek Catholic Cemetery has to say, and it's a story worth hearing. Back in the 1850s, Czech immigrants started putting down roots in this corner of Austin County. They named their new community Frydek, after a town back in their homeland, and that name carried everything they'd left behind right here into Texas soil.

Now, a community needs more than a name to take hold. It needs a place to lay its people to rest. In 1885, two people died, and they were buried here, on land owned by a man named Jan Pavlicek.

No fanfare, no deed, no official ceremony. Just two graves on one man's land, and the understanding that this ground meant something. By 1890, there were thirteen graves in that cemetery.

Thirteen. And that's when Pavlicek made it official, deeding the land over to be consecrated by the church. The community kept growing, kept building.

In 1907 the citizens erected a school building right here on this site, and that building pulled double duty, serving as a church and a nuns' home as well. Then in 1916, that structure was moved to the center of town. The building moved on.

But the cemetery stayed. All these years later it remains, right where those first two were buried in 1885, a quiet, steady reminder of the Czech heritage that took root here in the 1850s and never let go.

What the marker says

Czech immigrants began settling in this area in the 1850s. They named their new community Frydek after a town in their homeland. When two people died in 1885, they were buried here on land owned by Jan Pavlicek. By 1890, when Pavlicek officially deeded the land to be consecrated by the church, there were thirteen graves in the cemetery. In 1907 the citizens erected a school building here. Used also as a church and nuns' home, the structure was moved to the center of town in 1916. The cemetery remains as a reminder of the area's Czech heritage. (1991)