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.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the years around 1840, the rolling post-oak country of Fayette County was a frontier of the young Republic of Texas. Families came up the Colorado River valley and spread out along its creeks, looking for good water, timber, and land they could clear and farm. The headwaters of the Black Jack Branch of Buckner's Creek offered all three, and a mixed group of Anglo and German families made it home.
German immigrants were arriving in Texas in growing numbers in this period, and Fayette County became one of the heartlands of German Texas. Newcomers brought their language, their Lutheran faith, their singing and reading societies, and a deep habit of building things to last. Small communities like Black Jack Springs, now called O'Quinn, grew up around farms, churches, and family burial grounds.
That quiet world was split by the Civil War. Texas joined the Confederacy, but many German Texans had little sympathy for slavery or secession, and some openly sided with the Union. Holding those views in Confederate Texas could be dangerous. The story of this cemetery is woven through that tension, between the community people built and the war that tested their loyalties.
People & events
The cemetery seems to have begun as a family plot. Pioneer Charles Luck set aside land to bury his brother-in-law, Thomas H. Oeding, who died in 1867. His is the first marked grave here, and for a while the ground probably served the Luck and Oeding families alone, the way many rural Texas cemeteries started: one loss, one family, one patch of land chosen with care.
The second known burial tells a harder story. Johann Wilhelm Loessin, called Wil, and his three brothers volunteered as U.S. cavalrymen during the Civil War, which meant choosing the Union while living in a Confederate state. Wil was captured and held as a prisoner of war at Camp Groce, on Liendo Plantation near Hempstead. He caught an illness there, and it killed him in 1869, years after the fighting ended. His grave is a reminder that the war's toll did not stop at the surrender.
The community grew around these first graves. In 1871 residents built Trinitatis Lutheran Church next door, on land formally deeded by N.W. Faison. Charles Luck later donated more tracts, including the original graveyard, and heirs of Johanetta Luck Froelich Schwartz added land of their own. Over time the ground took in soldiers, homesteaders, and skilled carpenters, along with Johannes C.N. Romberg, a celebrated German-Texas poet whose presence shows that this farming community also cared about literature and the life of the mind.
Its place in the American story
It's easy to picture Civil War Texas as solidly Confederate. Graves like Wil Loessin's tell a more complicated story. Across the South, pockets of Unionists, many of them immigrants, refused to follow their states out of the Union, and some paid dearly for it. The Loessin brothers belong to that often-forgotten part of the war.
The cemetery also reflects one of the great migrations of the nineteenth century. Millions of Germans came to America in these decades, and Texas drew a remarkable share. They shaped the farms, churches, music, and architecture of Central Texas, and their mark is still visible in the region's towns and family names.
In 2002 the cemetery was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery, recognizing it as a record in stone. The names here follow early settlers and their descendants across generations. In that sense, a small rural graveyard tells the national story of immigrants becoming Americans, and of how they handled the hardest questions their new country put to them.
If you visit
Look for the oldest marked stones first: Thomas Oeding's, and Wil Loessin's beside the early family burials. From there you can follow the cemetery's growth outward, the way the community itself grew. Many older German-Texan cemeteries have inscriptions in German, so keep an eye out for them as you wander.
Trinitatis Lutheran Church stands next to the burial ground, and seeing church and cemetery together helps you understand how closely faith, family, and community were bound here. Please treat the grounds with respect. This is still a working cemetery, and descendants of the people buried here may well be nearby.
The cemetery fits easily into a drive through Fayette County's German heritage country around La Grange. Pair it with other historic churches and small towns in the area for a day of back roads, old stonework, and stories told one headstone at a time.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Charles Luck
- · Thomas H. Oeding
- · Johann Wilhelm Loessin
- · Johannes C.N. Romberg
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
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