Evergreen Cemetery
Orange, Orange County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Local lore places the first burial in this cemetery as early as 1840. When Robert Jackson purchased 35 acres of land including this site in 1853, at least one grave was already present. Jackson allowed that portion of his land to be used for further burials. The earliest marked grave is dated 1860. A ladies' cemetery association was formed in 1891, and for many years the graveyard was referred to as "The City Cemetery" or "The cemetery that Mr. Jackson gave to the city." The name Evergreen came into use in 1898 or 1899. Fewer than 100 marked graves date from before 1900. Most are those of pioneer settlers who died in their 40s and 50s. In 1911, Robert Russell wrote that "more graves are lost in there than are in sight." The number of marked burials increased in 1917, 1918, and 1919 due to a series of influenza epidemics. The majority of those who died in the city of Orange between 1850 and 1853, when private cemeteries began operations in the area, are buried on this site. Nearly four times its original size, the cemetery contains a variety of grave markers, including family mausoleums, the markers of fraternal orders, and military markers honoring veterans of several U. S. and international conflicts, including the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. With an estimated 7500 graves in 1998, Evergreen Cemetery is a record of the pioneers of orange. The cemetery continues to serve the city and surrounding area. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Local lore places Evergreen's first burial as early as 1840, and when Robert Jackson bought the land in 1853 at least one grave was already there; he opened the ground to the community, and a ladies' association took up its care in 1891. The cemetery grew to hold most of Orange's pioneers, its rows swelling during the 1917–1919 influenza epidemics. Among its estimated 7,500 graves stand family mausoleums, fraternal markers, and stones honoring veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, both World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam.
Why it matters
As the resting place of a town's founders and its veterans across a century of American wars, Evergreen Cemetery is a layered record of how one community lived, died, and remembered.
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Related people
- · Robert Jackson
Related events
- · 1918 influenza epidemic
Themes & tags
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