Roberts Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Roberts Cemetery, out in Harris County. Now settle in, because this ground has been holding stories since before Texas was Texas. Abraham Roberts, also known as Abram, born in 1773, came to Texas in the late 1820s as a member of Stephen F.

Austin's Colony. He brought his children with him, and when he found the land he wanted, he named it. Called it New Kentucky.

A man planting roots tends to reach back for something familiar, and that name was his way of saying: this place is ours now. By the 1840s, German immigrants had made their way into the area, and the community had taken on a new name, Spring Creek. Time has a way of renaming things.

But the ground itself remembers. The first burial on this site is thought to have been Abraham Roberts himself, the very man who settled the land. Now, no one can say for certain exactly when neighbors began bringing their dead to this place, but the records point to a heartbreaking beginning.

The earliest burial was probably that of infant Mary Schultz, born and died in 1858. That's the whole span of a life in a single sentence. And the oldest surviving headstone belongs to her young mother, Elizabeth M.

Schultz, who followed her in 1859. Those two graves, mother and child, anchor this place in sorrow as much as in history. Other notable graves dot this ground, including that of Abraham Roberts' own son George, born in 1811 and gone by 1874, and members of the Montgomery family, whose name carries its own weight in this story.

Nearby, and this part deserves a quiet moment, there is thought to have been a separate burial ground. The marker says it was given to the slaves of the Montgomery plantation by Abraham Roberts. A piece of ground set aside.

Whether that act was comfort or not, the marker doesn't say, and we won't dress it up. C. A.

Montgomery, who had acquired the land from Abraham Roberts, eventually deeded 202 acres to Henry Klabe, also recorded as Kleb, in 1887. But in that deed, Montgomery held something back: two acres, reserved specifically as the Roberts graveyard. They called it The Old Roberts Burial Ground.

Then in 1919, that two-acre tract, plus one additional acre, was deeded to the community for continued use. The ground belonged to everyone now, officially. By 1997, a count of the cemetery turned up 258 marked graves and 15 unmarked ones.

Two hundred and seventy-three souls, more or less, resting in a place that started with one man naming a stretch of Texas after somewhere he used to know. Family members cared for this cemetery on their own until 1971, when the Roberts Cemetery Association was formed. And it keeps serving the community to this day.

From New Kentucky to Spring Creek, from Abraham Roberts to 258 headstones and counting, this ground has been doing what good ground does: holding on.

What the marker says

Abraham (Abram) Roberts (1773-1850), a member of Stephen F. Austin's Colony, came to Texas in the late 1820s with his children, naming the area in which he settled New Kentucky. By the 1840s the area was known as the Spring Creek community and was settled by German immigrants. The first burial on this site is thought to have been that of Abraham Roberts. Though it is uncertain when the Roberts land began to be used for community burials, the earliest was probably that of infant Mary Schultz, who was born and died in 1858. The oldest surviving headstone is that of her young mother, Elizabeth M. Schultz, who died in 1859. Other notable graves include that of Abraham Roberts' son George (1811-1874) and those of the Montgomery family. A separate burial ground nearby is thought to have been given to the slaves of the Montgomery plantation by Abraham Roberts. C. A. Montgomery, who acquired the land from Abraham Roberts, deeded 202 acres to Henry Klabe (Kleb) in 1887, reserving two acres as the Roberts graveyard. The two-acre tract, often called "The Old Roberts Burial Ground," and an additional acre were deeded to the community for continued use in 1919. A 1997 count revealed 258 marked and 15 unmarked graves in the cemetery. Cared for by family members until the Roberts Cemetery Association was formed in 1971, the graveyard continues to serve the community. (1998)