Industry United Methodist Cemetery
Industry, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial ground has served Industry, the oldest permanent German settlement in Texas, since the mid-1800s. Property for a cemetery was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1854. During the 1860s, the church split into the Methodist Church South and the Methodist Church North, dividing the cemetery as well. In 2003, the two portions of the burial ground were rejoined. The oldest known burial, of infant Heinrich Moeller, dates to 1860, though there are a number of unmarked graves here. Other notable interments include veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War. Today, Industry United Methodist Cemetery continues to serve residents of Industry. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Industry claims the title of the oldest permanent German settlement in Texas, and this burial ground has served its community since the mid-1800s, with land deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1854. When the national Methodist church split over the sectional tensions of the Civil War era, even the cemetery was divided into North and South portions—only rejoined in 2003. The oldest known grave, that of infant Heinrich Moeller, dates to 1860, and Civil War veterans rest here among many unmarked graves.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the story of German immigration to Texas and shows how the national divisions of the Civil War era reached even into the sacred ground of a small frontier congregation.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Industry Pilgrims Rest Cemetery
Industry, TX
When Friedrich Ernst and Charles Fortran settled at the western edge of Stephen F. Austin's colony in 1831, the town of Industry became the first permanent German settlement in Texas. Travelers on the Gotier Trace passed through on their way west, and many stayed; the cemetery, formally deeded in 1873 by Ernst's daughter, held graves long before that, including Louise Ernst Stoehr, remembered on her tombstone as "the first German settler in Texas." German pioneers, Austin colonists, and Republic of Texas soldiers rest here together.
Industry Methodist Church
Industry, TX
Industry Methodist Church was organized in 1847 by the Rev. Henry Bauer, a missionary to the German immigrants settling this corner of Austin County. In 1867, during a lean and difficult era, the congregation raised its building — funds gathered through great sacrifice, with the men of the church doing the construction themselves. A century later, the Rev. A.M. Roos led the congregation's 100th-anniversary observance.
John Friedrich Ernst, Jr.
Industry, TX
John Friedrich Ernst emigrated from Oldenburg, Germany, as a boy, and by 1831 his family had settled in what became Industry—one of the first families to make the area a center of German culture in Texas. His life spanned Mexican rule to the Civil War: the family fled in the 1836 Runaway Scrape, and Ernst later joined the Texas Rangers, served as a justice of the peace, and helped organize local militias. In 1861 he enlisted in a Confederate artillery company and died in 1863 after twice commanding it.
Industry Post Office
Industry, TX
By 1831 the family of Johann Friedrich Ernst had settled along the Gotier Trace and founded the community of Industry, and Ernst's letters home to Oldenburg—one printed in German newspapers—drew a wave of countrymen to Texas, earning him the title "Father of German immigration to Texas." Mail for area residents came addressed in his care, and his partner and son-in-law Johann Gottlieb Sieper became the town's first official postmaster in 1840. The Ernst store, long held to be the site of the first post office, survives today in a memorial park.