DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'll tell it to you. This is the story of the San Marcos Cemetery in Hays County, and it starts — as so many Texas stories do — with land. A Mexican land grant, acquired in 1834 by a man named Thomas J.
Chambers. That's where this ground begins its long, layered history. Chambers died in 1865, and two years later his widow, Abbey, held an estate sale all the way down in Galveston to settle his affairs.
Three thousand acres — this site among them — passed to a man named H. N. Duble in 1867.
Then, the very next year, 1868, a Freedman named Peter Roberts stepped forward in Galveston and purchased a portion of the cemetery site. That's worth sitting with for a moment. A man who had likely lived his life without the right to own anything now held deed to sacred ground.
Before any of these land transactions, though, local tradition holds that slaves belonging to the area's earliest settlers were already being buried here — long before the first recorded burial, which belongs to a Major C. Rogers, in 1876. The land remembered people the records did not.
Then comes 1876 again, a busy year for this place. Six men — Edward Burleson Jr., L. W.
Mitchell, W. J. Joyce, E.
P. Raynolds, Wallace Carnahan, and W. O.
Hutchison — organized the San Marcos Cemetery Association. That same year, the association bought ten acres right here from Judy Covington Dixon and her husband, Shadrach Dixon. Ten acres to start.
But the ground kept growing. H. S. and Laura Jane Harvey added to it in 1890.
W. O. Hutchison — one of the original six — contributed again in 1892.
Then Dock and Sarah Roberts in 1902, Beverly Hutchison in 1904, and Dock Roberts alongside John McGehee in 1908. By 1924, more than twenty acres of this earth had been gathered together, piece by piece. And in that same year, 1924, the city of San Marcos acquired the cemetery entirely.
Forty years after that, in 1964, private citizens created a perpetual care trust fund — because some things deserve to be tended long after the people who knew the names are gone themselves. Who rests here? Pioneer settlers, for one.
And veterans — from the Texas Revolution of 1835 to 1836, all the way through to Vietnam. Among them, a War of 1812 veteran named Louis Lawshe, who outlasted his war by decades and eventually found his rest in Texas soil that once belonged to a land grant, then a widow's estate, then a Freedman's deed, then an association of six determined men, and finally a city that decided this ground was worth keeping. From 1834 to the present, a lot of hands have held this place.
And a lot of souls have been trusted to it.
What the marker says
This cemetery lies within the Mexican land grant acquired by Thomas J. Chambers in 1834. Chambers died in 1865 and in 1867 his widow, Abbey, sold 3,000 acres containing this site to H. N. Duble at an estate sale held in Galveston. A portion of the cemetery site was purchased by Freedman Peter Roberts in Galveston in 1868. Local tradition suggests that slaves of the area's earliest settlers were buried here prior to the first recorded burial, that of Major C. Rogers in 1876. The San Marcos Cemetery Association was organized in 1876 by Edward Burleson Jr., L. w. Mitchell, W. J. Joyce, E. P. Raynolds, Wallace Carnahan and W. O. Hutchison. That year the association bought 10 acres here from Judy Covington Dixon and her husband, Shadrach Dixon. By 1924 the cemetery acreage had increased to more than 20 acres due to land acquisitions from: H. S. and Laura Jane Harvey in 1890; W. O. Hutchison in 1892; Dock and Sarah Roberts in 1902; Beverly Hutchison in 1904; and Dock Roberts and John McGehee in 1908. San Marcos acquired the cemetery in 1924 and in 1964 a perpetual care trust fund was created by private citizens. Interred here are many pioneer settlers, War of 1812 veteran Louis Lawshe, and veterans of other conflicts ranging from the Texas Revolution (1835-36) to Vietnam.