Fentress Community Cemetery
Fentress, Caldwell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
FENTRESS COMMUNITY CEMETERY FRENCH AND DELLA TILLER AND F. W. AND ETHEL MERCER DEEDED LAND FOR THIS PUBLIC BURIAL GROUND TO THE FENTRESS INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS (I.O.O.F.) LODGE #598 IN MARCH 1915. SEVEN KNOWN GRAVES PREDATE THE DEED, FROM AS EARLY AS 1888. FIVE OF THEM ARE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN OF THE WILLIAMSON AND GILLIS FAMILIES. THE TWO GILLIS GRAVE MARKERS ARE MEMORIALS, AS THEIR GRAVES ARE AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION ACROSS THE SAN MARCOS RIVER. CARE OF THE CEMETERY TRANSFERRED TO THE LULING I.O.O.F. LODGE IN 1947, FENTRESS METHODIST AND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES IN 1952, AND THE FENTRESS COMMUNITY CEMETERY ASSOCIATION SINCE 1993. THE FENTRESS COMMUNITY CEMETERY IS A SIGNIFICANT CHRONICLE OF THIS RURAL CALDWELL COUNTY SETTLEMENT. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
French and Della Tiller and F. W. and Ethel Mercer deeded this land to the Fentress Odd Fellows lodge for a public burial ground in March 1915, though seven known graves—five of them young Williamson and Gillis children—predate the deed to as early as 1888. Two Gillis markers are memorials only, their graves lost across the San Marcos River. Care passed through the Luling Odd Fellows, local Methodist and Presbyterian churches, and finally a community association in 1993.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a poignant chronicle of a small rural Caldwell County settlement, where fraternal lodges and churches took turns safeguarding the community's dead.
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Related people
- · French Tiller
- · Della Tiller
- · F. W. Mercer
- · Ethel Mercer
Themes & tags
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