Pecan Wells Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Hamilton County, where the Lampasas River winds through and Lookout Mountain keeps watch on the horizon, a pioneer community called Lookout began taking shape in the 1870s and 1880s. Folks were putting down roots, building lives, sending their children to Lookout School, which opened about a mile southeast of here in the late 1870s.

It was the kind of place that had all the quiet ambition of somewhere that fully intended to last. And it did last, though not always under the same name. But we'll get to that.

Every community, sooner or later, sets aside a piece of ground for those who won't be moving on. For this cemetery, that moment came in 1893, with the burial of a very small soul, an infant boy named Heinrich K. Pfluger, son of Barnard and Maria Schmith Pfluger.

That was the beginning. Then in 1904, a Civil War veteran and early area settler by the name of W. M.

Kemp, along with his wife Margaret, donated the land here for cemetery purposes. Now, local tradition holds that the Kemps conveyed that land under one condition: that grave sites would continue to be available at no cost. No cost.

Whatever you had, whatever you didn't have, there would be a place for you. That's the kind of thing you remember about a community. Out to the west, about two miles from this spot, another school had taken root in the early 1900s, Merrill Creek School.

So you had Lookout, you had Merrill, two schools, one community spirit. Then 1921 arrived, and both Lookout and Merrill schools closed. A new school rose about half a mile west of the cemetery, and it carried a new name: Pecan Wells.

The community took that name too, and so did this cemetery. Renamed, but not reinvented. Still the same ground, still the same promise the Kemps had made.

Pecan Wells School itself closed in 1944, when it merged with the nearby Pottsville School System. Communities shift, schools consolidate, names change, but the ground here kept its purpose. Today, this cemetery holds more than two hundred graves.

Veterans rest here, men and women who served in conflicts ranging from the Civil War all the way to the Vietnam War. And it's maintained, to this day, by an association of descendants of the people buried here. Think about that for a moment.

The ones who kept faith with this place are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones lying within it. The Kemps said no one gets turned away. Turns out, no one ever did.

What the marker says

A pioneer community named Lookout began to develop in this area traversed by the Lampasas River and nearby Lookout Mountain during the 1870s and 1880s. Lookout School opened about one mile southeast of here in the late 1870s. This cemetery began with the burial of Barnard and Maria Schmith Pfluger's infant son Heinrich K. Pfluger in 1893. In 1904 Civil War veteran and early area settler W. M. Kemp and his wife Margaret donated land here for cemetery purposes. According to local traditional the Kemps conveyed the land under the condition that grave sites continue to be available at no cost. In the early 1900s Merrill Creek School was established about two miles west of this site. Lookout and Merrill schools closed in 1921 and a new school by the name of Pecan Wells was opened about one half mile west of the cemetery. At that time the community and cemetery were renamed Pecan Wells. Pecan Wells School closed in 1944 when it merged with the nearby Pottsville School System. Maintained by an association of descendants of people buried here, the cemetery contains more than 200 graves including those of veterans of conflicts ranging from the Civil War to the Vietnam War.