HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Jonah Cemetery

Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Jonah Cemetery was established in 1902 when community leaders J. M. Barrington, W. S. McMakins, C. Brady, A. J. McDonald, and R. H. Northcutt purchased two acres near the San Gabriel River to be used as a cemetery. Burials were free to area residents. The earliest marked grave is that of George N. Northcutt. Other graves of interest are those of Confederate veterans Isiah S. Hicks and M. G. Walton. Twin sisters Sarah E. (Yoes) Robbins and Margaret (Yoes) Barrington are interred here near many of their 22 children. One of the last physical remnants of a once-thriving rural community, the Jonah Cemetery continues to serve the area. (1998)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

In 1902 a handful of community leaders bought two acres near the San Gabriel River so that area residents could bury their dead free of charge, founding Jonah Cemetery for a then-thriving rural settlement. Among its graves are Confederate veterans and twin sisters interred near many of their combined twenty-two children. As the community around it dwindled, the cemetery endured as one of its last physical traces.

Why it matters

Rural cemeteries like Jonah are often the only surviving record of vanished farming communities, preserving the names and kinship of the families who settled the land.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · George N. Northcutt
  • · Isiah S. Hicks
  • · M. G. Walton

Themes & tags

Civil WarMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Xi Chapter, Kappa Alpha Order

Georgetown, TX

The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865 at Virginia's Washington College, where Robert E. Lee then presided, by young men shaped by the recent Civil War. Its Xi Chapter came to Southwestern University in Georgetown in 1883, meeting in secret until the school lifted its anti-fraternity rules in 1887. The chapter built its first house in 1895.

First Presbyterian Church

Georgetown, TX

Organized in 1854 at a Round Rock home, this Presbyterian congregation soon settled in Georgetown, where a donated lot held both its sanctuary and one of the town's first schools. The Civil War fractured the church as it did the nation: in 1866 the membership split into Northern and Southern congregations, a division that lingered until the Northern church disbanded and sold its building to the Southern one. Georgetown Presbyterians have worshipped in the present building since 1873, their denominations finally reunited in 1983.

Emzy Taylor

Georgetown, TX

Arkansas-born Emzy Taylor clerked in his father's Georgetown store before serving as a Confederate captain in the Civil War's Red River campaign, marrying while on furlough in 1864. Returning home after the war, he took over the family business and became a driving force in the town's growth, helping launch its first college, national bank, regional railroad, and water utility. He took special pride in founding and leading the city's volunteer fire department.

Daniel Harrison

Jarrell, TX

Daniel Harrison came to Texas from Tennessee in 1835 and served with Texan forces during the Revolution, later fighting in the 1839 Battle of the Neches as a militia volunteer for the young Republic. Settling in what became the Corn Hill community, he worked as a blacksmith on the stage route from Austin to Fort Gates—vital labor for a military road—while also farming and raising livestock. He later served in Central Texas' 27th Brigade during the Civil War, and he and his wife Nancy were eventually reinterred at Corn Hill Cemetery.