Dikes Family Cemetery
Gonzales, Gonzales County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established about 1850 by Miles G. Dikes (1804-1872). An original member of DeWitt Colony, Dikes emigrated from Georgia in 1829. In 1839 , married Eady Hodges (1810-1868). First known burial, in 1859, was Dikes' son, Lovic. Cemetery contains 20 marked graves; other are unmarked. Still in use by descendants.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Miles G. Dikes emigrated from Georgia in 1829 to become an original member of Green DeWitt's colony, one of the earliest Anglo-American settlements in Mexican Texas. Around 1850 he established this family cemetery on his Gonzales County land, where the first known burial, his son Lovic, came in 1859. The graveyard holds about twenty marked graves and is still used by his descendants.
Why it matters
The Dikes cemetery ties a living family to the DeWitt Colony, part of the first great wave of Anglo settlement that set Texas on the path from Mexican province to republic.
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Related people
- · Miles G. Dikes
- · Eady Hodges Dikes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the First Shot of the Texas Revolution
Gonzales County, TX
Near this spot on October 2, 1835, Texas colonists answered the Mexican government's demand to surrender their small cannon with a defiant "come and take it." The skirmish at Gonzales — the "first shot" of the Texas Revolution — sent Mexican troops retreating toward Bexar and set the colonies on the road to independence. This granite-and-bronze monument, designed by Waldine Tauch, was raised generations later to mark the ground.
First Shot of the Texas Revolution
Gonzales, TX
A mile and a half from here, on October 2, 1835, Texan colonists under Col. John H. Moore fired a small cannon at Mexican troops — the opening shot of the Texas Revolution. The confrontation at Gonzales over that very cannon crystallized the colonists' defiance and launched the fight for Texas independence.
James Hodges, Sr.
Gonzales, TX
James Hodges, Sr. arrived at Gonzales in April 1835 and quickly bought four leagues of land at the forks of the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers, paying three thousand dollars in silver. That autumn the townspeople elected him a delegate to the Consultation of 1835, the convention that created a provisional government and placed Sam Houston over a new Texas army. He supplied the army in 1836, fled with his family during the Runaway Scrape, and later returned to serve on the county's land commission and raise his family on the rivers.
Green Dewitt Cemetery
Gonzales, TX
Green and Sarah DeWitt left Missouri for Texas in 1826 after Green won an empresario grant to settle 400 Anglo-American families southwest of Stephen F. Austin's colony. Sarah earned her own land grant, the Sarah Seely League, in 1831, and set aside this acre as a family burying ground. She is remembered for the defiant "come and take it" flag raised as the fight for Texas independence began, while her husband lies buried in Mexico.