Redwood Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Out in Guadalupe County, in the little community of Redwood, a group of German settlers did what communities do when they intend to stay. In 1895, they founded a cemetery association.

That's a serious thing, founding a cemetery association. It means you're not passing through. It means you're putting down roots deep enough to hold your dead.

They purchased two acres of land near Cottonwood Creek from A. H. and Sallie Fleming, and that ground became a graveyard. A church had already been established nearby, and schools too.

This was a community building itself, piece by piece. Then came August of 1896, and the earliest marked grave. Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Heidemeyer.

Fifteen years old. That's the first name the ground kept, the first stone anyone thought to raise. In the years that followed, nearly seventy people were buried there, many of them the founding members themselves, the very people who had signed the papers, purchased those two acres, decided this was home.

Time, though, does what time does. The site fell into disrepair. The grass and the silence crept in together.

But here's the part worth holding onto. Descendants of those early immigrants came back. They cleaned the place.

They restored it. They placed a gate with a sign and installed a flagpole. They did not forget whose ground it was, or whose names it held.

That's how a community keeps its word across generations.

What the marker says

In 1895 German settlers in the community of Redwood founded a cemetery association. They purchased two acres of land located near Cottonwood Creek for a graveyard from A. H. and Sallie Fleming. A church and schools had been established nearby. The earliest marked grave is that of 15-year-old Lizzie Heidemeyer in August 1896. Among the nearly 70 burials are many of the founding members and their families. The site fell into disrepair but was cleaned and restored by descendants of the early immigrants. The volunteers also placed a gate with a sign and installed a flagpole. (1996)