Chesterville Cemetery
East Bernard, Wharton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Land promoter John Linderholm, manager of the Southern Texas Colonization Company of Chicago, purchased more than 60,000 acres for development in Wharton and Colorado counties beginning in 1894. The Chesterville community was an outgrowth of this effort. It is named after the Nelson Chester family who, along with the Lafayette Kellison family, moved here from Illinois about 1895. Alvina Chester (1875-1971) was the town's first postmistress, and William Chester (1869-1945) developed the area and looked after local Linderholm interests. He was a partner in the Chester-Kellison general store and also served a term as postmaster. In 1897, in response to the land promotions, Peter Anderson (1857-1942) settled nearby with his wife, Augusta (1864-1915), their children and his parents. When Peter's father, Andrew (1818-1898), passed away in March, 1898, John Linderholm set aside this parcel of land adjacent to the Anderson property for a burial ground. Robert B. Wallace deeded the land to the Chesterville Cemetery Association in 1909; reorganized in 1961, the group still oversees affairs of this site that chronicles families that settled and developed this former prairie land. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Chesterville community grew out of an 1890s land promotion, when the Southern Texas Colonization Company of Chicago bought tens of thousands of acres to draw settlers to Wharton and Colorado counties. Families like the Chesters and Andersons arrived from Illinois in the mid-1890s, and when patriarch Andrew Anderson died in 1898, promoter John Linderholm set aside this parcel beside the family land for a burying ground. A cemetery association has overseen the site since 1909.
Why it matters
The cemetery captures how organized land colonization schemes turned Texas prairie into farming communities at the turn of the 20th century.
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Related people
- · John Linderholm
- · Nelson Chester
- · Peter Anderson
- · Andrew Anderson
Related events
- · Southern Texas Colonization Company land promotion
Themes & tags
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