New Tabor Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for New Tabor Cemetery — let me tell you what it says, in my own way. Out on the Burleson County land, where Czech and German immigrants carved out a new life in the 1870s and 1880s, a community took root and named itself after a place they'd left behind — the community of Tabor, in Czechoslovakia. Carry that weight a moment.

These were people far from everything familiar, reachin' back across an ocean just to name the ground beneath their feet. In February of 1888, a man named Henry Ginzel sold 3.25 acres of that ground — not for a church, not for a schoolhouse — for a cemetery. The buyers were three trustees: F.

Jurcak, G. Hnilica, and J. Skribanek.

And the land hadn't been waiting long before it was needed. The first recorded burial came in July of 1888. Not a grandfather.

Not a weathered old pioneer. It was an infant — Jan Skrabanek. A few months later, in October of 1888, Martin Fojt became the first adult laid to rest in that soil.

And that pattern — the infants and children — it doesn't fade as you walk through those graves. A number of them are the smallest kind. The marker is plain about what that means: it attests to the often harsh conditions of pioneer life.

No softening it. The land asked a great deal. Then there's 1919.

The marker notes that the many who died that year may have been victims of the influenza epidemic. May have been. The certainty isn't recorded — but the graves are.

And yet, standing against all of that sorrow, more than 35 military veterans are interred in this ground. People from this little community, named for a faraway place in Czechoslovakia, who went out and served. Today, more than 841 graves fill those 3.25 acres.

The cemetery continues to serve the descendants of New Tabor's pioneer settlers — which is, when you think about it, exactly what a place like this was always meant to do. The immigrants came looking for a future. The cemetery remembers every step of what that cost.

What the marker says

New Tabor was settled by Czech and German immigrants in the 1870s and 1880s. It was named for the community of Tabor in Czechoslovakia. In February 1888, Henry Ginzel sold 3.25 acres of land for a cemetery to trustees F. Jurcak, G. Hnilica and J. Skribanek. The first recorded burial here was that of infant Jan Skrabanek in July 1888; the first adult burial was that of Martin Fojt, who died in October 1888. A number of graves are those of infants and children, attesting to the often harsh conditions of pioneer life. The many who died in 1919 may have been victims of the influenza epidemic. More than 35 military veterans are interred here. With more than 841 graves, the cemetery continues to serve the descendants of New Tabor's pioneer settlers. (1999)