DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Rockport Cemetery, straight from the record. Now, there are some places that hold a town's whole story in one piece of ground. Rockport Cemetery is one of those places.
It has been serving the citizens of Rockport and Fulton for over a century — generation after generation finding their way here, which is about as long a run as any community institution can claim in this part of Texas. The oldest marked grave belongs to Emma Fulton, who died in 1876. She was the granddaughter of George Ware Fulton — a man the marker tells us was instrumental in the development of this whole area.
George Ware Fulton himself was eventually interred in that same cemetery, in 1893. Grandfather and granddaughter, same ground. There's something in that.
Now here's where the story takes a darker turn, and it deserves to be said plainly. If you walk through those graves and notice a cluster of headstones all bearing the year 1918, you are not imagining it. That was the year of a devastating influenza epidemic, and a large number of burials took place here in that single year.
The earth remembers what the calendar can sometimes blur. And then there are the veterans. The cemetery holds the graves of men and women who served in the Texas Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
That is not one generation's sacrifice — that is every generation's. From the founding fights of this republic all the way through to Vietnam, this quiet ground in Aransas County has been receiving them home. The Rockport Cemetery Association is the outfit that maintains this historic graveyard today, keeping watch over all of it — the earliest marked stone, the epidemic year, and every soldier in between.
Some places just carry more weight than others. Rockport Cemetery is one of them.
What the marker says
This cemetery has served the citizens of Rockport and Fulton for over a century. The oldest marked grave is that of Emma Fulton (d. 1876), granddaughter of George Ware Fulton, who was instrumental in the development of the area and was interred in the cemetery in 1893. A large number of burials took place here in 1918, the year of a devastating influenza epidemic. The cemetery contains the graves of veterans of the Texas Revolution, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The Rockport Cemetery Association maintains the historic graveyard. (1988)