Smithson Valley Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Smithson Valley Cemetery, out there in Comal County. Now, the Texas Hill Country has a way of holding on to things. Old names, old customs, old ground.

And out along Farm to Market Road 311, just off state highway 46, there's a piece of ground that's been holding on since 1876. That's when the Smithson Valley Cemetery got its start. Not as a grand public burial ground, not with a committee or a deed or a formal plan.

It began, quietly, as a family ranch cemetery. The first soul laid to rest there was baby Karl Ohlrich, Jr., the young son of Louise Pantermuehl Ohlrich. He was just a little one.

And the land that received him belonged to Louise's brother, a man named Heinrich Pantermuehl. Heinrich Pantermuehl, born in 1842, had deep roots in this part of Texas. His wife was Pauline, born in 1856, and she was the granddaughter of Johann Startz, one of the first two hundred and forty founders of New Braunfels and a citizen of the Republic of Texas.

That's the kind of lineage that carries weight in the Hill Country. In 1898, Heinrich formally deeded that land for use as a cemetery, giving the ground a permanence that matched the community gathering around it. And there was quite a community.

Smithson Valley, at its height, had a store, a post office, a blacksmith shop, a one-room schoolhouse, a dancehall, a bowling alley, and a saloon. That's not a wide spot in the road. That's a life.

German immigrants had put down roots here, and you can still feel the shape of what they built. You can feel it most, maybe, when you walk among the graves. They face east to west, arranged in uniform rows with curbing, a custom brought straight from Germany.

Granite, marble, and limestone markers stand alongside several that are unmarked, those thought to belong to children. Many of the inscriptions are written in German. The landscape itself, the marker tells us, is representative of other German family cemeteries found throughout central Texas.

These folks carried their traditions a long way and planted them carefully. Now, among the graves, there is one that tends to stop people. The grave of Herbert Startz, born in 1893, who died in 1918.

A young soldier. His grave is decorated with a blanket of shells, and that detail is believed to be the signature of a German cement finisher named Henry Theodore Mordhorst. A craftsman's mark.

A quiet way of saying: I was here, and I honored this. Many descendants of Johann Startz, that founding citizen, are buried in this cemetery. The family is woven into the ground itself.

Since 1970, the Smithson Valley Cemetery Association has maintained this place, keeping the rows straight and the memory alive. Because that's what this cemetery is, the marker says plainly: a reminder of German immigration and settlement in the Hill Country. Baby Karl was the beginning.

But the Smithson Valley Cemetery became something much larger than one family's sorrow. It became the resting place of a whole people's story, told in granite and limestone and shells, in rows that still face east, just like they did back in the old country.

What the marker says

Located off state highway 46 on Farm to Market Road 311 in the Texas Hill Country, the Smithson Valley Cemetery is the final resting place for German immigrants who settled the Smithson Valley community area. At one time, the community had a store, post office, blacksmith shop, one-room schoolhouse, dancehall, bowling alley and saloon. Many descendants of Johann Startz, one of the first 240 founders of New Braunfels and citizen of the Republic of Texas, are buried here. In 1876 the cemetery began as a family ranch cemetery for the burial of baby Karl Ohlrich, Jr., the young son of Heinrich Pantermuehl's sister, Louise Pantermuehl Ohlrich. Heinrich Pantermuehl (1842-1921), husband to Johann Startz's granddaughter, Pauline (1856-1933), formally deeded this land for a cemetery in 1898. The landscape of the Smithson Valley Cemetery is representative of other German family cemeteries found throughout central Texas. Graves face east to west arranged in uniform rows with curbing, perpetuating a custom widely used in Germany. Granite, marble and limestone gravestones are present, along with several unmarked graves thought to belong to children. Many inscriptions are in German. The grave of a young soldier, Herbert Startz (1893-1918), is decorated with a blanket of shells believed to be the signature of German cement finisher Henry Theodore Mordhorst. The Smithson Valley Cemetery Association, organized in 1970, maintains this historic cemetery, a reminder of german immigration and settlement in the hill country.