Machemehl Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Machemehl Cemetery, out here in Austin County. Pull over if you can, because this one deserves a moment. Michael Machemehl was one of the German Forty-Eighters, that wave of souls who left the old world behind when the old world stopped cooperating.

He came over from Annaberg, Saxony in 1849, and he didn't come alone. His wife, Mary Bubash, made the crossing with him, and so did their son, Johann. Now, when the Machemehl family put down roots, they put down serious roots.

Eight hundred acres worth of roots, to be precise, divided between father and son. That's a statement of intention right there. These folks were not visiting.

They were staying. But the land wasn't the only thing that would carry the family name forward. The cemetery came first, the way cemeteries sometimes do on the frontier, arriving before a family is ready for one.

In 1850, just a year after they arrived, Johann's wife, Henrietta Borel Machemehl, passed away. And so the ground became sacred, and the Machemehl Cemetery came into existence. Six years later, grief visited the family again.

Johann's daughter, Annette, passed and was buried in that same family ground. Out here in Texas, the frontier had a way of taking what you loved before you'd finished building what you came to build. Today, at the center of that cemetery, a large limestone monument stands, listing the names and dates of eight members of the Machemehl family who rest there.

Eight names carved in stone, each one a whole life, a whole story, a whole ocean crossed. That marker, that limestone monument, is the family speaking across time, saying: we were here, we sacrificed, we stayed. And the burial ground itself serves as a reminder of exactly that, of the immigrant pioneers who gave everything to this piece of Austin County ground.

What the marker says

MICHAEL MACHEMEHL, A MEMBER OF THE GERMAN FORTY-EIGHTERS, CAME TO AMERICA FROM ANNABERG, SAXONY IN 1849 WITH HIS WIFE, MARY BUBASH, AND THEIR SON, JOHANN. LAND PURCHASED BY THE FAMILY CONSISTED OF 800 ACRES AND WAS DIVIDED AMONG FATHER AND SON. THE CEMETERY CAME INTO EXISTENCE IN 1850 WITH THE DEATH OF JOHANN'S WIFE, HENRIETTA BOREL MACHEMEHL. SIX YEARS LATER, JOHANN'S DAUGHTER, ANNETTE, PASSED AND WAS BURIED AT THE FAMILY CEMETERY. A LARGE LIMESTONE MONUMENT AT THE CENTER OF THE CEMETERY LISTS THE NAMES AND DATES OF EIGHT MEMBERS OF THE MACHEMEHL FAMILY BURIED IN THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY. THIS BURIAL GROUND SERVES AS A REMINDER OF THE SACRIFICES MADE BY IMMIGRANT PIONEERS OF THE AREA.