DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and some stories, once you hear them, don't let go easy. Mount Calvary Cemetery, Refugio County. It starts with sixteen soldiers.
Sixteen men massacred during the Texas Revolution of 1836. Their bones were left scattered on the prairie — no ceremony, no marker, nothing but open sky. It was Refugio citizens who gathered those remains and gave them ground.
Captain Amon King and his men, finally laid to rest. And then — and this is the part that'll make you shake your head — the site was forgotten. Just swallowed up by time.
Decades passed before anyone rediscovered it, and that didn't happen until 1934. So the cemetery began, in a sense, with a burial that was nearly lost to history. But Mount Calvary kept accumulating its stories.
Near the north fence lies the grave of J. Hampton Kuykendall — born around 1820, died 1882. Now there's a man who wore a lot of hats.
Revolutionary soldier. Journalist. Congressman.
Scholar. Four callings, one man, one plot of ground in Refugio County. And Kuykendall has company.
Also interred at Mount Calvary are Irish settlers from the Powerheweson colony of the 1830s. Among them: Empresario James Power — a man who didn't just settle Texas, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Sixteen massacred soldiers.
A forgotten site rediscovered nearly a century later. A soldier-journalist-congressman-scholar. Irish colonists.
And a man who put his name on Texas freedom. One cemetery. Refugio County.
A lot of ground to carry.
What the marker says
Initiated by the burial of 16 soldiers massacred during the Texas revolution of 1836. The bones of Capt. Amon King and his men--scattered on the Prairie--were buried by Refugio citizens. Later forgotten, the site was rediscovered in 1934. Grave of J. Hampton Kuykendall (1820?-1882), revolutionary soldier, journalist, congressman, and scholar, lies near north fence. Also interred here are Irish settlers of the 1830s Powerheweson colony. Among them is Empresario James Power, who also signed Texas declaration of Independence.