Giesenschlag Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Giesenschlag Cemetery, out here in Burleson County. Now settle in, because this one goes back a good ways. Johann Joachim Giesenschlag was born in Prussia in 1817.

He came into this world on one continent, and somewhere along the way decided Texas was where the story ought to end. He and his wife Anna, born a Schulze, packed up their children and made the crossing, arriving in Texas in 1855. They put down roots first in Washington County, which was no small thing in itself.

But the Giesenschlags weren't done moving. Come the 1870s, they pulled up those roots and headed to Burleson County, where Johann bought over a thousand acres. Over a thousand.

That is a man who was not thinking small. Now, when a man acquires that kind of land, he starts thinking about legacy. About what endures.

And Johann Giesenschlag set aside one particular tract for a family cemetery. He tended to it. He planned for it.

And in the way these things go, he became the first person to be interred there. The patriarch, first in. In 1883, members of his family donated that cemetery property to the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church at Mound Prairie.

The land found a new steward, the story found a new chapter. And for many years, a schoolhouse stood on the former Giesenschlag land right next to that pioneer cemetery. Children learning their letters, just on the other side of the fence from where it all began.

That is Burleson County for you. The past and the future, never very far apart.

What the marker says

Prussian born Johann Joachim Giesenschlag (1817-80), his wife Anna (Schulze), and their children came to Texas in 1855. Settling first in Washington County, they moved to Burleson County in the 1870s and bought over 1,000 acres here. Giesenschlag set aside this tract for a family cemetery, and was the first to be interred here. In 1883 members of his family donated the property to the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church at Mound Prairie. For many years a schoolhouse was located on former Giesenschlag land adjacent to this pioneer cemetery.