Geiger Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — and friends, this one's got layers worth peeling back. Near this spot, there was once a whole town. Strunksville, they called it.

And it wasn't just a wide spot in the road — it had a store, a post office, a saloon, and a horse and mule gin. That gin was owned and operated by one Diedrich Strunk, one of the first settlers of the place, way back in 1854. So right from the start, the man's fingerprints were all over this corner of Lavaca County.

Now, fast forward to April 12, 1868. A German Lutheran minister by the name of Pastor Christoph Geiger arrived on the scene — not wandering, mind you, but sent. Sent from a missionary training school in Basel, Switzerland, all the way to the United States, with a specific mission: find the scattered communities, serve them, and where it made sense, organize a congregation.

On that April day in 1868, that's exactly what he did. The Lutheran Church was organized, right here. And that same year — 1868 — people began burying their dead at what would come to be known as Geiger Cemetery.

Now, the marker is honest with you: that date can be contended, because some of those graves are unmarked, and some have gone illegible with time. The earth keeps its secrets. In 1879, the congregation got serious about its land.

Diedrich Strunk — still around, still involved — along with Robert Miller, Sr., and a man named C. Fernau, serving as trustees of the Lutheran Church, purchased twenty-four acres from the Grayson Brothers of Pennsylvania. The price?

Sixty-five dollars and fifty cents. That purchase included the cemetery. The first church building the congregation put up was called Bethlehem.

But congregations grow, and ambitions grow with them. By 1886, Pastor Geiger was already planning something bigger — a larger church, on the same site. And on May 26, 1887, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was complete.

Now here's where the story takes a turn that would strain the imagination if the marker didn't say so plain. The church was moved. Moved to the growing town of Sublime, to better serve its congregation, many of whom had become residents there.

And in 1905 — they didn't just haul it off on a flatbed, friend. They carefully took that church building down, loaded it onto oxcarts, and re-erected it at its present location. Piece by piece.

By ox. The cemetery, though — the cemetery stayed. It kept right on serving as the town's graveyard, long after Strunksville itself faded from the map.

And then there's this detail that just makes you smile. In the 1950s, the women of the Lutheran and Baptist Churches got together and held ice cream socials and noodle soup suppers. Not for themselves — to raise funds for a chain link fence and an entrance gate for the cemetery.

Community showing up for community, even in memory. Today, families still come from miles around to tend this ground. It stands as one of the oldest cemeteries in the area, and one of the very few remnants of a town that time otherwise swallowed whole.

A pastor's name on a cemetery. A settler's name on a vanished town. Sixty-five dollars and fifty cents worth of land that outlasted everything built on it.

That's Strunksville, friends — or what's left of it.

What the marker says

Near this site was a town once known as Strunksville. It consisted of a store, post office, saloon and a horse and mule gin owned and operated by one of the first settlers of the town in 1854, Diedrich Strunk. On April 12, 1868, the Lutheran Church was organized by Pastor Christoph Geiger, a German Lutheran minister sent to the United States from a missionary training school in Basel, Switzerland, to serve scattered communities and organize congregations where feasible. The community began burying their dead at Geiger Cemetery as early as 1868, though the date can be contended as some graves are unmarked or illegible. In 1879, Diedrich Strunk, Robert Miller, Sr. And C. Fernau, trustees of the Lutheran Church, purchased 24 acres of land from the Grayson Brothers of Pennsylvania for the sum of $65.50, to include the cemetery. The first church building of the congregation was called Bethlehem. In 1886, Pastor Geiger planned the erection of a larger church on the same site, and on May 26, 1887, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was complete. The church was moved to the growing town of Sublime to better serve its congregation, many of whom were residents of the town. In 1905, the church was carefully taken down and moved by oxcart, where it was re-erected at its present location. The cemetery continued its use as the town’s graveyard and in the 1950s, women of the Lutheran and Baptist Churches held ice cream socials and noodle soup suppers to raise funds for a chain link fence and an entrance gate for the cemetery. Families continue to come from miles around to maintain what is one of the oldest cemeteries in the area and one of the few remnants of a bygone town.