Black Jack Springs Cemetery
La Grange, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Black Jack Springs Community, now called O'Quinn, was established by a group of Anglo and German families who settled near the headwaters of the Black Jack Branch of Buckner's Creek by 1840. Pioneer Charles Luck provided land for the burial of his brother-in-law, Thomas H. Oeding (d. 1867). Oeding's is the first marked grave in this cemetery, which probably first served the Luck-Oeding family. The second known burial is that of Johann Wilhelm (Wil) Loessin (d. 1869), who volunteered with his three brothers as U.S. cavalrymen in the Civil War. Wil died from an illness contracted while held as a prisoner of war at Camp Groce, Liendo Plantation, near Hempstead. Adjoining the cemetery, residents built Trinitatis Lutheran Church in 1871 on land formally deeded by N.W. Faison. Charles Luck donated tracts of land, including the original graveyard, and heirs of Johanetta Luck Froelich Schwartz gave additional land to what became the Black Jack Springs Cemetery. Buried here are soldiers, homesteaders, carpenter craftsmen, and the renown German-Texas poet Johannes C.N. Romberg. The many names found among the stones in the cemetery chronicle the lives of early county settlers and their descendants. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By 1840, Anglo and German families had settled near the headwaters of Black Jack Branch, and when pioneer Charles Luck buried his brother-in-law Thomas Oeding in 1867, this graveyard was born. Among its early burials is Wil Loessin, who with his three brothers volunteered as U.S. cavalrymen during the Civil War and died of illness after being held as a prisoner of war at Camp Groce. Adjoining Trinitatis Lutheran Church rose in 1871, and the cemetery gathered homesteaders, craftsmen, and the renowned German-Texas poet Johannes Romberg.
Why it matters
The burial ground preserves the story of German-Texan settlers — including Unionists who served the U.S. Army in a Confederate state — and the immigrant culture that took root in the Texas hill country.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Charles Luck
- · Thomas H. Oeding
- · Johann Wilhelm Loessin
- · Johannes C.N. Romberg
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Chuch
La Grange, TX
In the years just after the Civil War, German and Swiss Lutheran settlers were putting down deep roots in the rolling farmland of Fayette County. This congregation took shape in 1867 under the Rev. C. C. Rudi, newly arrived in the Swiss Alp community, and by 1869 worshippers had raised a simple log church on ten acres donated by John and Christina Knippa. A cemetery followed in 1877, and the handsome frame sanctuary that still anchors the site went up in 1889–90.
United Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
Schulenburg, TX
The Swiss Alp community took shape around 1865, and within two years the Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Church was meeting on land given by John and Christina Knippa. The first burial, in 1867, was of Emma Gertraut Ritter, soon followed by the pastor's wife, and a decade of church interments preceded the site's formal establishment as a cemetery in 1877. A 1967 merger of small area churches gave the ground its present name.
Cedar Cemetery
LaGrange, TX
The Lewis family settled the La Grange area in the 1830s and set aside this ground as a family burial place, where the earliest marked grave dates to 1857. German immigrants left a deep imprint here—records were kept in German until 1931 and their culture is carved into many of the tombstones. Renamed several times as it grew into a community cemetery, it holds veterans of every American conflict from Texas independence through the Korean War.
Czech Catholic Union of Texas
La Grange, TX
On March 24, 1889, Czech immigrants gathered in La Grange to form the Katolicka Jednota Texaska (KJT), the Czech Catholic Union of Texas, chartered that July with six lodges. As a fraternal benefit society it offered life insurance, financial aid, and educational scholarships, eventually growing to more than a hundred lodges statewide. It remains a pillar of Texas's Czech-Catholic community.