Mc Lester Family Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the McLester Family Cemetery in Aransas County. Now settle in, because this one starts with land, and ends with something quieter and more lasting than land ever is. Somewhere among the hackberry, the mesquite, and the live oak trees, there is a cemetery that has served one family for over a century.

That right there ought to tell you something about roots. Charles H. McLester was an engineer on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad in Aransas County.

A railroad man. A man who knew how to keep things moving. His wife was Eliza Isabelle Adams, and together in 1903 they inherited land from Eliza's foster parents, George and Amanda Cox.

That land would become more than a homestead. It would become a place of memory. The McLester family, along with many others in the Sparks Colony, worked the earth as vegetable farmers near the turn of the century.

Good, honest, dirt-under-the-fingernails work. And for a while, you might imagine, life moved along the way a railroad does. Forward.

Then came 1909. Charles and Eliza's son, Bennie Bell McLester, thirteen years old, became the first burial in that cemetery among the trees. Thirteen years old.

There is no wry aside for that. There is only the weight of it, and the quiet that follows. But families do what families do.

They keep going. They keep coming back. Educators, city officials, veterans, all of them descendants of Charles H. and Eliza, have been laid to rest in that same ground over the years.

And here is the part that lands hardest, if you let it. The family continues to care for the cemetery. Not past tense.

Present tense. Over a century on, they are still showing up. That is not just loyalty to the dead.

That is a statement about who you are and where you come from. The McLester Family Cemetery has been holding that statement in Aransas County for a very long time.

What the marker says

McLESTER FAMILY CEMETERY SITUATED AMONG HACKBERRY, MESQUITE AND LIVE OAK TREES, THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY HAS SERVED THE McLESTER FAMILY FOR OVER A CENTURY. CHARLES H. McLESTER, AN ENGINEER ON THE SAN ANTONIO AND ARANSAS PASS RAILROAD IN ARANSAS COUNTY, AND HIS WIFE, ELIZA ISABELLE ADAMS, INHERITED THIS LAND FROM ELIZA'S FOSTER PARENTS, GEORGE AND AMANDA COX, IN 1903. THE McLESTER FAMILY WAS ONE OF NUMEROUS VEGETABLE FARMERS IN THE SPARKS COLONY NEAR THE TURN OF THE CENTURY. THE FIRST BURIAL WAS CHARLES AND ELIZA'S THIRTEEN YEAR-OLD SON, BENNIE BELL McLESTER, WHO DIED IN 1909. MANY OTHER DESCENDANTS OF CHARLES H. AND ELIZA, EDUCATORS, CITY OFFICIALS AND VETERANS ARE BURIED HERE. THE FAMILY CONTINUES TO CARE FOR THE CEMETERY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 1998