DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. August Wilhelm Schumann was born in 1791, and by the time he set foot in Texas in 1846, he was a man who knew what land meant. He arrived with his family and bought himself a large parcel out in Guadalupe County — room to breathe, room to grow.
Now, you'd think that'd be the end of the story: man finds his piece of Texas, puts down roots, done. But a few months later, a wagon train came rolling in — immigrants, from the very same homeland Schumann had left behind. And something about that must have moved him, because he agreed to sell them land near the Guadalupe River.
Neighbors from the old country, starting fresh in the new one. The settlers built their houses in close proximity to one another, and together they raised a communal fence around their land to protect their crops. And that settlement — well, it became known as Schumannsville.
Now, Schumannsville sat in Guadalupe County, and getting to the county seat in Seguin was no easy thing. So the settlers did what Texans do — they petitioned the Legislature. Tried to get the county lines redrawn so their community would fall in Comal County instead.
The Legislature said no. They stayed in Guadalupe County. The community endured all the same.
The cemetery sits on the northern part of August Schumann's original land. Its first burial came in 1853, when Carl Blumberg died of yellow fever. That's a hard beginning — yellow fever taking the first of your neighbors, first name carved into first stone.
The second burial was August Schumann himself, in 1858. The man whose name the settlement carried, laid to rest in the ground he'd sold and the community he'd made possible. Today the cemetery covers two and three-quarter acres, enclosed by a fence.
Nearly every grave is marked with a tombstone, and nearly every one of those tombstones bears an inscription in German. The names, the epitaphs — they're still there, still speaking. Still reminding anyone who walks that ground where these people came from, and what they built when they got here.
What the marker says
German immigrant August Wilhelm Schumann (1791-1858) arrived in Texas with his family in 1846 and bought a large parcel of land in Guadalupe County. Meeting a wagon train of immigrants from his homeland a few months later, he agreed to sell them land near the Guadalupe River. The settlers, with their houses in close proximity, built a communal fence around their land to protect their crops, and the settlement became known as Schumannsville. Finding it difficult to travel to the county seat in Seguin, they petitioned the Legislature to change county lines to place their community in Comal County, but the request was denied and they remained in Guadalupe County. The Schumannsville Cemetery is located in the northern part of the land owned by August Schumann. The first burial occurred when Carl Blumberg died of yellow fever in 1853. The second was that of August Schumann in 1858. Now enclosed by a fence, the cemetery contains 2.75 acres of land. All but a few of the graves are marked with tombstones bearing German inscriptions. The names and epitaphs serve as reminders of the proud German heritage of Schumannsville citizens. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986 [Historic Texas Cemetery name and date plaque added 2017] Established 1853. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2016