High Hill Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight from the record. You're passing through Fayette County now, and there's a story buried in this ground that goes back further than most folks stop to think about. High Hill Cemetery.

Six acres of quiet, and every one of those acres has got something to say. A post office called High Hill was established here around 1858, and when it arrived, it did something practical and lasting. It united three adjacent villages, and this community cemetery took its name from that same post office.

Simple as that, and sturdy as stone. Now the land itself once belonged to a man named George Herder, born in 1818, died in 1887. A German immigrant.

And not just any German immigrant, either. George Herder was a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. Let that sit with you a moment.

The man who once owned this six-acre tract had stood on one of the most consequential pieces of ground in Texas history. The oldest stones here belong to two men: August Wolters, who died April 6th, 1861, and Friedrich Eicholt, who died May 18th, 1861. Both gone before that first year of the Civil War had even found its footing.

The cemetery holds about 241 graves in all, primarily those of German settlers who put down roots in this part of Fayette County. For generations, family members cared for this place themselves, tending it the way you tend something you love and don't want to lose. That went on until 1963, when the Old High Hill Cemetery Association, Inc., was organized and took up that responsibility.

Six acres. Two hundred and forty-one graves. A post office, three villages, and a San Jacinto veteran resting somewhere in the long memory of this Texas soil.

What the marker says

High Hill Post Office, established about 1858, united three adjacent villages and gave this community cemetery its name. This six-acre tract was once the property of George Herder (1818-87), a German immigrant and a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. The oldest stones here mark the graves of August Wolters, who died April 6, 1861, and Friedrich Eicholt, who died May 18, 1861. The cemetery contains about 241 graves, primarily those of German settlers in the area. Family members cared for the site until 1963, when the Old High Hill Cemetery Association, Inc., was organized.