Magnolia Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Now, out on the edge of Beaumont, Jefferson County, there's a place where the ground holds a long memory. And I mean long.

The Magnolia Cemetery Company got its charter from the State of Texas on August 3, 1887. That's the official founding, the paperwork date, the moment the company became real. But the story, as it turns out, is older than that.

We'll get back to that in a moment. The month after the charter was granted, the company's five trustees went out and purchased thirteen acres of land. Thirteen acres to serve as a graveyard, and before long, burials were taking place.

That's how it starts, thirteen acres and five trustees and the quiet work of a new cemetery getting underway. But land has a way of growing when a community grows around it. Over the years, acquisitions and expansions reached outward, and those expanding boundaries ended up surrounding a whole other cemetery entirely.

The Hebrew Rest Cemetery, just north of those original thirteen acres, found itself encircled. And there were two more burial grounds drawn into the story as well. The I.O.O.F.

Cemetery, that's the Odd Fellows, and a plot that had been deeded all the way back in 1876 to, and I'm quoting the marker here, the white citizens of Beaumont. That plot came to be known later as the Public Grounds. Adjacent to Magnolia Cemetery, though separately held, are the Knights of Pythias and St.

Michael's Orthodox cemeteries. So what you've got here is not just one cemetery. It's a whole landscape of burial grounds, each with its own history, gathered together by time and geography.

Now here's the part that reaches back the furthest. Many early settlers and residents of Beaumont are interred in Magnolia Cemetery, including two veterans of the Texas Revolution. Two people who lived through that fight are buried in this ground.

And the oldest grave markers? They pre-date the official founding of the Magnolia Cemetery Company altogether. Those markers represent burials that were moved here from private family cemeteries.

So the 1887 charter is not the beginning of the story. It's just the chapter where the story got organized. Walk through there today and you'll see a range of markers, from simple stones to elaborately sculpted angels, from modest resting places to full family mausoleums.

Thirteen acres once. A community's long memory now.

What the marker says

The Magnolia Cemetery Company was granted a charter by the State of Texas on August 3, 1887. The following month the company's five trustees purchased thirteen acres of land on which to locate the graveyard, and burials were soon taking place in the cemetery. Land acquisitions and expansions over the years have surrounded the Hebrew Rest Cemetery just north of the original thirteen acres, as well as two other burial grounds -- the I.O.O.F (Odd Fellows) Cemetery and a plot deeded in 1876 to "white citizens of Beaumont" (later known as the Public Grounds.) Adjacent to Magnolia Cemetery, but separately held, are the Knights of Pythias and St. Michael's Orthodox cemeteries. Many early settlers and residents of Beaumont are interred here, including two veterans of the Texas Revolution. The oldest grave markers pre-date the official founding of Magnolia Cemetery and are representative of burials which were moved here from private family cemeteries. a variety of grave markers can be seen here, from simple stones to elaborately sculpted angels and family mausoleums. (Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986)