HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Machu Cemetery

Granger, Williamson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

MACHU CEMETERY PAVEL AND ROZINA (TRLICA) MACHU SETTLED IN WILLIAMSON COUNTY IN 1878 AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNITY. THE CEMETERY BEGAN IN 1883 WHEN MACHU HELPED A WOMAN BURY HER HUSBAND WHO DIED DURING THEIR JOURNEY. MACHU OFFERED TO BURY HIM ON A TWO-ACRE SECTION OF THE MACHU FARM LOCATED ABOUT FIVE MILES SOUTHEAST OF GRANGER. THE FIRST RECORDED BURIAL WAS THAT OF KATARINA SAFARIK IN 1892. BURIALS INCLUDE DESCENDANTS OF PAVEL AND ROZINA, VETERANS AND OTHER CITIZENS OF THE COMMUNITY. THE CEMETERY WAS RELOCATED TO THIS SITE IN 1976 BEFORE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LANEPORT DAM. MEMBERS OF THE MACHU FAMILY CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2011

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Czech immigrants Pavel and Rozina Machu settled in Williamson County in 1878 and helped build up its farming community. The cemetery on their land began in 1883 when Pavel offered to bury a stranger who had died on his journey, and it grew to hold family descendants, veterans, and neighbors. Threatened by construction of the Laneport Dam, the entire cemetery was carefully relocated to this site in 1976 and is still tended by the Machu family.

Why it matters

Central Texas's Czech farm settlements left a lasting cultural imprint, and their cemeteries — even when moved to make way for modern dams — keep that immigrant heritage rooted in the land.

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Related people

  • · Pavel Machu
  • · Rozina Trlica Machu

Themes & tags

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