Jourdanton City Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I hear it, this comes straight from the official marker for the Jourdanton City Cemetery in Atascosa County, so let me tell it right. Now picture this. It's 1907, and two men, T.

H. Zanderson and a fellow by the name of Jourdan Campbell, walk into a deal that changes the map of South Texas. They buy the Toby Ranch, all forty thousand acres of it, and they lay out a brand new town.

They call it Jourdanton. And right there in the original plat, before they built a single storefront or hammered a single nail, they set aside two blocks for a cemetery. Two blocks.

Some might call that morbid planning. I call it honest. The Artesian Belt Railroad built through the site, and after that, well, the town didn't walk.

It ran. A lumberyard went up. A cotton gin.

Grocery stores, a bank, restaurants, hotels, churches, a school. The railroad made shipping livestock and produce to San Antonio and other points a whole lot more practical, and people came. From varied backgrounds and varied places, they came and they planted themselves in this South Texas soil.

By 1910, the town had grown bold enough that citizens voted to move the Atascosa County seat all the way from Pleasanton to Jourdanton. That's a town that knows its own weight. The cemetery started out welcoming every denomination under the Texas sky.

Lutheran and Catholic cemeteries would later be established in other locations, but in the beginning, this ground held everybody. The earliest marked graves tell you something quiet and something heavy. Roland Purgason, an infant, died in 1910.

William P. White died in 1911. Their stones are the oldest ones still marked, and they remind you that a new town is still a human place, with all the grief that comes with it.

In 1918, the Jourdanton City Cemetery Association organized, with John Moore serving as its first president. Decades later, in the 1950s, the association added acreage, enlarging the cemetery to more than three city blocks. The ground kept growing because the town kept living.

About one hundred veterans have been identified among those buried here, at least seven of them having served during the Civil War. Fraternal organization members rest here. Law enforcement personnel rest here, including four sheriffs.

And there is one deputy buried here who was killed in the line of duty. That grave carries a particular weight, the kind that doesn't lift. The grave markers themselves range from simple wooden crosses to curbed family plots.

That range tells the whole story, really. Wealth and hardship, old families and newcomers, all of it laid side by side in the same South Texas clay. A town that was built rapidly because of a railroad, that drew people of varied ethnic backgrounds, that started by setting aside ground for its dead before it had much of anything else.

The Jourdanton City Cemetery holds all of that. Every name carved into every stone is part of what that town became.

What the marker says

T. H. Zanderson and city namesake Jourdan Campbell bought the 40,000-acre Toby Ranch in 1907 and laid out the town of Jourdanton. The original plat included two blocks designated for use as a cemetery. The Artesian Belt Railroad built through the site and the town grew quickly, with a lumberyard, cotton gin, grocery stores, bank, restaurants, hotels, churches and a school among the early establishments. The railroad improved shipping of livestock and produce to San Antonio and other points. In 1910, citizens voted to move the Atascosa County seat from Pleasanton to Jourdanton. The Jourdanton City Cemetery was originally used by all denominations; Lutheran and Catholic cemeteries were later established in other locations. The earliest marked graves here are those of Roland Purgason, an infant who died in 1910, and William P. White, who died in 1911. The Jourdanton City Cemetery Association organized in 1918, with John Moore as first president. The association added acreage to the cemetery in the 1950s, enlarging the graveyard to more than three city blocks. About one hundred veterans buried here have been identified, at least seven having served during the Civil War. Notable burials and gravestones include members of fraternal organizations and several law enforcement personnel, including four sheriffs and one deputy who was killed in the line of duty. Grave markers vary from simple wooden crosses to curbed family plots. The Jourdanton City Cemetery shows the cultural and economic diversity of this South Texas town, built rapidly because of the railroad and attracting people of varied ethnic backgrounds who made the site their home. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2008