DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, out on the Aransas coast, there's a burial ground with a story that stretches all the way back to the Republic itself. This is Lamar Cemetery, and the ground it sits on holds more history than you might expect from a place the world mostly forgot.
The cemetery was founded by a man named James W. Byrne — born in Ireland, fought in the Texas Revolution, and by all accounts the kind of man who left a mark on the land. Byrne named this place for his friend Mirabeau B.
Lamar, who served as President of the Republic of Texas from 1838 to 1841. That's the kind of friendship that gets a town named after you. The earliest grave belongs to Patrick O'Connor, born in 1822, gone by 1854.
O'Connor had worked as a bookkeeper for Byrne's business operations down in New Orleans. He came to rest here long before most of the community around him had even taken root. Byrne himself died in 1862, and somewhere along the way, the town of Lamar — the whole town — ceased to exist.
By 1915, it was gone. And the cemetery? It was left to the quiet and the coastal weather, neglected and slowly fading.
Then came the 1940s. The family of John Henry Kroeger, Jr., who died in 1944, took it upon themselves to restore what time and neglect had worn down. Because of their efforts, the dead still have a place to be remembered.
There's something worth sittin' with in that. A town disappears. A cemetery nearly follows.
And then somebody decides it matters enough to bring it back. That decision is the last entry in this particular story — and it might be the most Texas thing about it.
What the marker says
This burial ground originally served pioneer settlers of the Lamar community. Founded by James W. Byrne (d. 1862), a native of Ireland and a veteran of the Texas Revolution, it was named for his friend Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the Republic of Texas from 1838-1841. The earliest grave is that of Patrick O' Connor (1822-1854), a bookkeeper for Byrne's business operations in New Orleans. The town of Lamar ceased to exist by 1915 and the cemetery was neglected until the 1940s when it was restored through efforts by the family of John Henry Kroeger, Jr. (d. 1944). (1981)