The Century-Old Wimberley Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This land, out in Hays County, has a story that starts before most of Texas had much of a story at all. In 1847, a man named Amasa Turner received the first patent on this ground.

Just a piece of land, you might think. But land has a way of collecting history whether it means to or not. Settlers came along and put up a log cabin right here, and that humble structure pulled double duty, serving as both a church and a school.

Out on the Texas frontier, you made do with what you had, and what you had was one good log cabin and a community willing to gather in it. Worship services were conducted by circuit riders, those traveling preachers who covered vast stretches of country on horseback, carrying their faith from settlement to settlement. In 1876, something shifted the character of this place forever.

Melissa Wimberley, the young daughter of a man named Pleasant Wimberley, died and was buried right here on the church grounds. A child laid to rest in the earth tends to consecrate a place in ways no ceremony quite can. Time kept moving.

In 1885, John H. and Callie Saunders purchased the property, and then they did something that speaks well of them. They gave one acre for a community cemetery. One acre, freely given.

Later, the family of John R. Dobie added to that gift with additional land. And so the ground grew, as cemeteries tend to do.

Among those who came to rest here is W. W. Moon, born in 1814, died in 1897, remembered on this marker as the first permanent settler in Hays County.

The first. The man who put down roots before the roots had anywhere much to go. A patent, a log cabin, a circuit rider's prayer, a child named Melissa, a generous deed, and one man who got here first.

That's what this acre holds.

What the marker says

This land was first patented to Amasa Turner in 1847. Settlers erected a log cabin here which served as a church and school facility. Worship services were conducted by circuit riders. In 1876 Melissa Wimberley, young daughter of Pleasant Wimberley, died and was buried on the church grounds. John H. and Callie Saunders bought the property in 1885 and gave one acre for a community cemetery. Later, additional land was given by the family of John R. Dobie. W. W. Moon (1814-1897), first permanent settler in Hays County, is buried here. (1979)