Austin State Hospital Cemetery
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Austin State Hospital Cemetery Established 1882 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1882, this cemetery holds the graves of patients of the Austin State Hospital, one of Texas's earliest public institutions for the mentally ill. Many of those buried here were poor, unclaimed, or long forgotten, making the ground a quiet record of how nineteenth- and twentieth-century society cared for — and set apart — its most vulnerable. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002.
Why it matters
Institutional cemeteries like this one bear witness to the American history of public mental-health care and the dignity owed to those who died in the state's keeping.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jane Yelvington McCallum
Austin, TX
Jane Y. McCallum lived in this Austin house while helping lead the Texas woman suffrage movement in the early 20th century. As a force in the Texas Joint Legislative Council — the so-called 'Petticoat Lobby' — she pressed for political and social reform, and as Secretary of State from 1927 she famously rediscovered and preserved an original signed copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
John Elbridge Hines
Austin, TX
Born in South Carolina in 1910, John E. Hines came of age witnessing the social upheaval of the Great Depression and built a ministry devoted to social justice. Rising through the Episcopal Church, he moved to Austin as Bishop Coadjutor in 1945 and became Presiding Bishop of the national church in 1965, where he championed racial equality, women's participation, and aid to minority communities through his General Convention Special Program. He also helped lead the movement for corporate divestment that pressured the end of South African apartheid.
Jacob Fontaine
Austin, TX
Born into slavery around 1808, Jacob Fontaine came to Austin about 1850 as the enslaved property of an Episcopal minister. In 1864 he began preaching to fellow enslaved people and, after emancipation, founded the First Baptist Church, Colored, and roughly five other congregations along with a county association of Black Baptists. He published the "Gold Dollar," one of Austin's earliest Black newspapers, and campaigned to bring the University of Texas to the city.
Diocese of Austin
Austin, TX
In 1947 the Catholic dioceses of San Antonio, Galveston, and Dallas ceded counties to form the new Diocese of Austin, elevating St. Mary Church to a cathedral and naming Louis J. Reicher its first bishop. Reicher built or remodeled some 260 buildings and founded councils on women's leadership and human rights; his successors pressed social justice and drew Mexican Americans into religious vocations. By 2008 the diocese spanned 125 parishes across 25 Central Texas counties.