Industry United Methodist Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Industry, Texas. Oldest permanent German settlement in the whole state.

And out here on this land, there's a cemetery that's seen just about everything a community can go through, and kept right on standing. This burial ground has served Industry since the mid-1800s. The property itself was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1854.

A deed, a handshake, a piece of ground set aside for the long sleep. That's how a community plants its roots deepest. Then came the 1860s.

And if you know anything about that decade in America, you know it had a way of splitting things apart. The church divided into the Methodist Church South and the Methodist Church North. And when the church split, the cemetery split with it.

Same ground, same graves, same sky overhead, but drawn down the middle by the fault lines of a nation tearing itself in two. Here's the part that'll stay with you though. In 2003, those two portions of the burial ground were rejoined.

It took well over a hundred years, but the land came back together. The oldest known burial here belongs to an infant, Heinrich Moeller, and that dates to 1860. There are other graves, unmarked ones, whose stories we may never fully know.

And there are veterans resting here too, men who served in conflicts dating all the way back to the Civil War. Today, Industry United Methodist Cemetery still serves the people of Industry. Same ground.

Same purpose. Just a little more whole than it used to be.

What the marker says

This burial ground has served Industry, the oldest permanent German settlement in Texas, since the mid-1800s. Property for a cemetery was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1854. During the 1860s, the church split into the Methodist Church South and the Methodist Church North, dividing the cemetery as well. In 2003, the two portions of the burial ground were rejoined. The oldest known burial, of infant Heinrich Moeller, dates to 1860, though there are a number of unmarked graves here. Other notable interments include veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War. Today, Industry United Methodist Cemetery continues to serve residents of Industry. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006