Engelking Cemetery
Cat Spring, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
FRIEDRICH FERDINAND ENGELKING CAME TO TEXAS IN 1839 FROM SCHLÜSSELBURG, WESTPHALIA, PRUSSIA. IN 1842, HE PURCHASED 177 ACRES IN AUSTIN COUNTY AND LATER THAT YEAR MARRIED OTTILIE ELIZABETH CAROLINE LOUISE (LINA) VON ROEDER. A BURIAL SITE WAS SET ASIDE ON THE FARM FOR FAMILY PLOTS AND IT IS SUSPECTED THAT A CHILD OF FRIEDRICH AND LINA IS BURIED UNDER AN OAK TREE. THE CEMETERY DEVELOPED FROM A FAMILY PLOT TO THE ENGELKING CEMETERY. TWO CIVIL WAR VETERANS ARE BURIED HERE. IN ADDITION TO THE 14 MARKED GRAVES, SEVEN UNMARKED GRAVES ARE KNOWN TO EXIST, INCLUDING THE BURIAL OF “UNCLE WASH,” A SLAVE WHO SAVED THE LIVES OF THE ENGELKING FAMILY FROM AN INDIAN ATTACK. THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY IS CARED FOR BY ENGELKING DESCENDANTS. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2003
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Friedrich Ferdinand Engelking came to Texas in 1839 from Westphalia in Prussia, bought Austin County land in 1842, and married Lina von Roeder that same year. The family set aside a plot on their farm that grew into this cemetery, where two Civil War veterans lie among the graves. Its stories reach into the hardest corners of frontier life, including the burial of a man remembered as "Uncle Wash," an enslaved person credited with saving the Engelkings during an attack.
Why it matters
A single family cemetery here gathers the intertwined histories of German immigration, slavery, and the Civil War that shaped nineteenth-century Texas.
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Related people
- · Friedrich Ferdinand Engelking
- · Ottilie "Lina" von Roeder Engelking
Themes & tags
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