DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good piece of ground has a story underneath it — sometimes literally — and the land that became Hallettsville Memorial Park is no exception. It starts with a woman named Mrs.
Mary Jane Hallett Ballard, who in 1870 deeded this property to the trustees of what was simply called the Hallettsville Graveyard. No pretense about it. That's what it was.
And for nearly three decades, the pioneers of this corner of Lavaca County were laid to rest right here — folks who'd carved something out of the Texas brush and the hard years that followed. That went on until 1898. Then, quiet.
The burials stopped, the civic attention drifted, and the weeds moved in the way weeds always do when nobody's watchin' — slow, patient, and thorough. For more than fifty years, this ground sat largely forgotten, the graves of those early settlers growing harder to see beneath the tangle. But here's where the story turns.
In 1952, several civic groups got together and persuaded the city of Hallettsville to do something about it — to take this overgrown, neglected tract and make it into a public park. A group of leading citizens stepped up to supervise its development, and the city and the local garden club have kept it up ever since. And standing in the center of it all is a monument — one that honors the county's heroes in the battles of the Alamo, Goliad, Gonzales, and San Jacinto.
So what you've got here is ground that started as a gift, served as a resting place, fell into silence, and then — because enough people decided the past was worth tending — came back to life as a park. That's a long journey for one piece of land. Mrs.
Ballard probably couldn't have imagined it. Then again, maybe she could.
What the marker says
Land originally property of Mrs. Mary Jane Hallett Ballard, who deeded it to trustees of the "Hallettsville Graveyard" in 1870. Area pioneers were buried here until 1898. The monument in center honors county's heroes in battles of the Alamo, Goliad, Gonzales, and San Jacinto. After 1898 the cemetery fell into disuse and weeds overgrew it. In 1952 several civic groups persuaded the city to establish a public park here; a group of leading citizens supervised its development. The city and local garden club have maintained the park and grounds since 1952. 1970