Lagarto Cemetery
Lagarto, Live Oak County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the early 1870's an unknown traveler died at the home of Samuel and Mary Beall, proprietors of a general store in the ranching town of Lagarto. The Bealls buried the man at a site on their property. In 1876, land surrounding the gravesite was formally set aside as the Lagarto Cemetery when Sam and Mary Beall sold two acres of their land to J.W. Ramey, Cornelius Clay Cox, and T.P. McNeill, trustees for the Lagarto Community Cemetery. The grave of the unknown man is identified only by a caliche rock cover, as are two other burial sites in the cemetery. The oldest marked grave, that of two year old Isabel Harrison, is dated October 12, 1876. Others buried here include Charles H. Fusselman (1866-1890), who was shot in Presidio county while serving as a Texas ranger, and John Pollan (1808-1890), who fought in the Texas war for Independence. Although the population of Lagarto declined after the railroad bypassed it in 1887, its citizens have continued to use the cemetery since the 1870's. Descendants of the town's pioneers still live in the area, which has become the site of development along Lake Corpus Christi.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Lagarto Cemetery traces its origin to the early 1870s, when an unknown traveler died at the home of storekeepers Samuel and Mary Beall and was buried on their land; in 1876 they formally deeded two acres for a community cemetery. Among those laid to rest here are Texas Ranger Charles Fusselman, killed in Presidio County in 1890, and John Pollan, a veteran of the Texas war for independence. Though the ranching town of Lagarto declined after the railroad bypassed it in 1887, descendants of its pioneers have kept the cemetery in use ever since.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the memory of a South Texas ranching community and the frontier figures—rangers and independence veterans—buried within it long after the town itself faded.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1870s, Live Oak County in South Texas was cattle country. After the Civil War, Texas ranchers sent huge herds north on the famous trail drives, and small brush-country towns like Lagarto served as supply points and social centers for the ranches around them.
A general store, like the one Samuel and Mary Beall ran, was the heart of a town like this. It sold supplies, passed along news and mail, and gave travelers a place to stop. Roads were rough and distances long, and a stranger falling sick far from home was a real and common danger.
The railroad decided which frontier towns would grow and which would fade. In 1887 the line passed Lagarto by, and the town declined, as so many places across Texas and the West did when the tracks went elsewhere. In the twentieth century a dam on the Nueces River created Lake Corpus Christi nearby, bringing a new kind of life to the area.
People & events
The cemetery began with an act of kindness to a stranger. In the early 1870s a traveler died at the Bealls' home. Nobody knows who he was. The Bealls buried him on their own land, and his grave is still here, marked only by a caliche rock cover. Two other graves in the cemetery are marked the same way.
In 1876 the Bealls made the burial ground official by selling two acres around that grave to trustees for the community. The oldest grave with a name belongs to Isabel Harrison, a two-year-old child, who died that October. Her small grave is a reminder of how often frontier families lost young children.
Others buried here link Lagarto to bigger Texas stories. John Pollan, born in 1808, fought in the Texas war for independence and lived long enough to see the open frontier turn into ranch country. Charles H. Fusselman was only in his twenties when he was shot and killed in 1890 while serving as a Texas Ranger, one of the dangers of law enforcement on the frontier. An independence veteran in his eighties and a young Ranger, both buried in the same small cemetery in the same year, show how fast Texas changed in one lifetime.
Its place in the American story
Small cemeteries like this one often hold more history than any monument. In just two acres, Lagarto Cemetery holds people from the Texas Revolution, the cattle frontier and the era of the Texas Rangers, which are some of the best-known chapters in Western history.
Lagarto's story is also the story of thousands of American towns. Railroads made some places boom and left others behind. Towns that were bypassed often shrank or disappeared, and their cemeteries are sometimes the last thing left to show a community was there.
The unknown traveler matters too. The West was full of people on the move, and many died far from home without being named. The Bealls' choice to give a stranger a proper burial, and the community's decision to keep caring for his grave for generations, says something lasting about frontier life.
If you visit
This is a working community cemetery that local families still use, so visit quietly and respectfully. Look for the plain caliche rock covers that mark the unknown traveler and the two other unidentified burials. Caliche is a hard, chalky, whitish stone found all over South Texas, and settlers used whatever was at hand.
Take time to read the older stones and notice the dates, especially those from the 1870s and 1890s. Small graves, veterans' markers and family plots together tell the story of a ranching community over generations.
The cemetery is near Lake Corpus Christi, so it fits easily into a lake trip or a drive through the South Texas brush country. As you look around, picture the busy little ranch town that was here before the railroad went elsewhere.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Samuel Beall
- · Mary Beall
- · Charles H. Fusselman
- · John Pollan
Themes & tags
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