DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every cemetery's got a story, and the one out here in Live Oak County — the Lagarto Cemetery — well, it starts with a mystery that nobody ever did solve. Sometime in the early 1870s, an unknown traveler came through the ranching town of Lagarto.
Came through, and never left. The man died at the home of Samuel and Mary Beall, who ran the general store in town. Nobody knew who he was.
Nobody came looking. So the Bealls did the decent thing — they buried him right there on their property. No name.
No marker. Just a cover of caliche rock over the ground, and the quiet. Now here's where it gets interesting.
That single grave — that one unknown man — became the seed of something lasting. In 1876, Sam and Mary Beall sold two acres of their land to three men: J.W. Ramey, Cornelius Clay Cox, and T.P.
McNeill, acting as trustees for the Lagarto Community Cemetery. Just like that, the land surrounding that lonesome gravesite became official. The Lagarto Cemetery was formally set aside, and that unknown traveler's resting place became its founding stone.
Two other graves in the cemetery are also marked by nothing more than caliche rock covers — same as his. The earth keeps some secrets. The oldest marked grave, though, belongs to someone whose name we do know.
Little Isabel Harrison, two years old, buried on October 12, 1876 — the same year the cemetery was established. Among those who followed her into that ground are two men whose lives read like the Texas story itself. Charles H.
Fusselman, born in 1866 and died in 1890, was a Texas Ranger — shot in Presidio County in the line of duty. And John Pollan, born in 1808 and died in 1890, had fought in the Texas War for Independence. Two men, different generations, different chapters of the same long saga, now resting in the same quiet corner of Live Oak County.
Lagarto itself had bigger ambitions once. But in 1887, the railroad bypassed the town, and the population declined. That's a particular kind of Texas heartbreak — watching the iron rails go somewhere else and taking the future with them.
Towns have withered from less. But the cemetery? The cemetery held on.
Citizens of Lagarto have continued using it since the 1870s, straight on through. Descendants of the town's pioneers still live in the area, which has grown into a site of development along Lake Corpus Christi. The town may have shrunk, the railroad may have looked the other way, but that patch of ground — started by two acres and one nameless traveler — has outlasted all of it.
Some things, once rooted, just don't let go.
What the marker says
In the early 1870's an unknown traveler died at the home of Samuel and Mary Beall, proprietors of a general store in the ranching town of Lagarto. The Bealls buried the man at a site on their property. In 1876, land surrounding the gravesite was formally set aside as the Lagarto Cemetery when Sam and Mary Beall sold two acres of their land to J.W. Ramey, Cornelius Clay Cox, and T.P. McNeill, trustees for the Lagarto Community Cemetery. The grave of the unknown man is identified only by a caliche rock cover, as are two other burial sites in the cemetery. The oldest marked grave, that of two year old Isabel Harrison, is dated October 12, 1876. Others buried here include Charles H. Fusselman (1866-1890), who was shot in Presidio county while serving as a Texas ranger, and John Pollan (1808-1890), who fought in the Texas war for Independence. Although the population of Lagarto declined after the railroad bypassed it in 1887, its citizens have continued to use the cemetery since the 1870's. Descendants of the town's pioneers still live in the area, which has become the site of development along Lake Corpus Christi.