Fulton Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The town of Fulton, down on the Aransas County coast, was platted by George Ware Fulton in 1868, and right from the start, when men are laying out streets and lots and futures, they set aside a piece of land for the community graveyard. That's a particular kind of honesty, isn't it.

Before the town barely had a heartbeat, they made room for the end of things. The cemetery is called Fulton Cemetery, and it has been receiving the people of this place ever since that founding year. The earliest documented burial is that of a child.

Louis L. I. Greenough, born 1868, died 1869.

That name, those two years sitting so close together, says everything the marker needs it to say. And Louis was not alone in that part of the grounds. The large number of children's graves here stands as quiet, enduring testimony to just how hard pioneer life could be.

No softening that. No tall tale to spin around it. The land was beautiful, sure, but the conditions were often harsh, and the cemetery kept the honest record.

Now, the rest of those graves hold a wide company. European immigrants who crossed an ocean and kept on going until they reached this Texas shore. Prominent local citizens.

And veterans, a long roll of them, men and women who served through the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. All of them resting together on land George Ware Fulton set aside before the town even had its first full year. Here's the part that sits with you though.

In 1947, a brush fire swept through the cemetery and destroyed many of the early wooden markers. Just like that, names that had stood through decades of Gulf Coast weather were gone. And so today, some graves here have no markers at all.

The people in them are still there. We just don't know anymore who they are. Fulton Cemetery has been keeping this community's story since 1868, and part of that story, now, is the silence where some names used to be.

What the marker says

Land for this community graveyard was set aside when the town of Fulton was platted by George Ware Fulton in 1868. The earliest documented burial is that of a child, Louis L. I. Greenough (1868-1869). The large number of children's graves attests to the often harsh conditions of pioneer life. Also interred here are European immigrant settlers, prominent local citizens, and veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. A brush fire in 1947 destroyed many of the early wooden markers, leaving some unmarked graves. (1989)