St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. Way out in Gillespie County, on land that folks once called the North Grape Creek community, and later came to know as Cave Creek, something was put in motion back in November of 1883. A group of residents, German Lutheran settlers, came together and formed a congregation.

They gave it a name that's a mouthful in the best possible way: St. Paulus Evangelische Gemeinde an Nord Grape Creek. Say that three times fast on a county road.

A man named Conrad Herbort stepped up and gave land, land for a sanctuary, land for a cemetery, and land for a parsonage. Three gifts wrapped into one piece of ground. Now, the first burial in that cemetery came just a few months after the congregation was formed, in March of 1884.

And if you could walk those grounds today, you'd find grave markers that speak to where these people came from. German inscriptions carved into stone, and ornate ironwork rising above the soil. Somebody put real craft and real care into honoring the dead.

Here's the part that stays with you, though. Church members continue to use that cemetery to this day. The congregation that gathered in November of 1883 planted something that didn't stop growing.

Every name on those iron-adorned markers represents an individual, a family, someone who contributed to that church and that community across the years. The ground Conrad Herbort gave away is still doing its work. That's not nothing.

That's just about everything.

What the marker says

In November 1883, residents of the North Grape Creek community, later known as Cave Creek, formed a German Lutheran congregation, which they named St. Paulus Evangelische Gemeinde an Nord Grape Creek. Conrad Herbort gave land for a sanctuary, cemetery and parsonage. The first burial in the cemetery dates to March 1884, and grave markers feature German inscriptions and ornate ironwork. Church members continue to use the cemetery, which remains a link to the many individuals and families who have contributed over the years to the church and community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004