Lindenau Community Cemetery
Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The settlement of Lindenau was established in 1891 near the junction of Sandies Creek and the Guadalupe River. The large oak trees reminded early German pioneers Charles and Daniel Wild of the linden trees that grow in Germany, thus the name “Lindenau.” The brothers and Daniel’s wife, Eloise Grohmann Wild, are buried here, along with their descendants. Located on the James Bell Survey in the German farming community of Lindenau, the Lindenau Community Cemetery was established as the St. John Lutheran Cemetery in 1905. In 1957, the officers of the church transferred the title of the cemetery land to the church’s corporation, and in 1972, community members formed the Lindenau Community Cemetery Association, Inc. to care for the cemetery. At that time, the name was changed to Lindenau Community Cemetery, as people from other denominations were also interred in the cemetery. Two years later, the land was transferred to the cemetery association. The oldest burial in the cemetery is that of Heinrich Budde (1852-1903). Many veterans are buried here, along with members of fraternal organizations, victims of an early 1900s local flu epidemic and infants buried in a separate children’s section, a common practice among Texas Germans. The spatial layout is very orderly, geometric and symmetrical, and some headstones in the cemetery are inscribed in the German language. This historic cemetery has hundreds of graves and is a significant burial ground for many descendants of the original German farmers who settled this region at the turn of the twentieth century. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Lindenau took root in 1891 where Sandies Creek meets the Guadalupe, when German immigrant brothers Charles and Daniel Wild saw in the big oaks a reminder of the linden trees of home. The burial ground that grew here — begun as St. John Lutheran Cemetery in 1905 — reflects the tight-knit Texas German farming world, from headstones cut in German to a separate children's section and the graves of veterans, lodge members, and victims of an early-1900s flu epidemic. Deeded to a community association in the 1970s, it now holds hundreds of the settlers' descendants.
Why it matters
It preserves the physical memory of the German immigrant wave that shaped the farmland and folkways of Central Texas at the turn of the twentieth century.
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Related people
- · Charles Wild
- · Daniel Wild
- · Eloise Grohmann Wild
- · Heinrich Budde
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Schlinke, Charles A.
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Born in Posen, Germany, in 1863, Charles A. Schlinke immigrated to Texas as a boy and grew into one of DeWitt County's leading citizens. He built up thousands of acres, raised horses and mules for market, became a U.S. citizen in 1893, and repeatedly gave of his own land — for a schoolhouse, for a public road he had first protested, and for a park honoring his late wife. A founding member of the Lindenau shooting club, he was remembered at his death in 1940 as a man devoted to family, community, and church.
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