Cotulla Cemetery
Cotulla, La Salle County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Land for this cemetery was first given by Joseph Cotulla, the town's founding father. The earliest marked grave is dated 1882. Numerous graves bear the date 1886, when smallpox struck La Salle County. Many community leaders, including Joseph Cotulla, and the Rev. V. E. Covey, early Texas educator, are buried here. The cemetery was originally divided into Mexican and Anglo-American sections. In 1941 six acres of land were added to the first site. Under the care of the Cotulla Cemetery Association since 1915, this is the chief burial ground in La Salle County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Joseph Cotulla gave land for a burial ground in his young namesake town, he created a record in stone of South Texas frontier life. The oldest marked grave dates to 1882, and a cluster from 1886 memorializes the year smallpox swept La Salle County. Originally divided into Mexican and Anglo-American sections, the cemetery holds many early community leaders and has been tended by an association since 1915.
Why it matters
A frontier cemetery like Cotulla's preserves the mingled Mexican and Anglo heritage of the South Texas borderlands and the epidemics that tested its early settlers.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Joseph Cotulla
- · V. E. Covey
Related events
- · Smallpox epidemic of 1886
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Capt. Jasper N. Daniel
Cotulla, TX
A Georgia native who came to Texas in 1853, Jasper N. Daniel won election to the state legislature in 1859 and served as a Confederate captain during the Civil War. Settling in Cotulla in 1884, he became justice of the peace and then county judge, helping impose order on La Salle County during its rough, lawless frontier era. He and his wife raised sixteen children.
The First United Methodist Church of Cotulla
Cotulla, TX
Organized in 1881 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, this was the first Protestant congregation in Cotulla, with its first services held in a settler's home. The 1883 frame chapel it built was the only church in town, shared for a time with the Presbyterian and Baptist congregations. Members raised the present brick sanctuary in 1906 and added an educational building in 1928.
First Baptist Church of Cotulla
Cotulla, TX
When town founder Joseph Cotulla gave land for a Baptist church in 1882, he helped plant one of the community's earliest congregations, organized around 1883–1884 by the missionary Rev. W. D. Johnson. Members worshiped in the Methodist sanctuary until they raised their own frame building in 1889, where the noted minister and educator John Van Epps Covey preached the first sermon. Covey lived in Cotulla and served the church at times until his death in 1898.
La Salle County
Cotulla, TX
Travelers had crossed this land on the old Presidio Rio Grande Road for centuries before the U.S. Army built and garrisoned Fort Ewell here in 1852 for protection. The first permanent settler, William A. Waugh, opened a rancho at the Cibolo Crossing in 1856, and in 1858 the county was created and named for the French explorer La Salle. County government organized in 1880, and Cotulla became the county seat in 1883.