Navidad Baptist Cemetery
Schulenburg, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1853, Seth F. and Caroline M. Hazel deeded land to trustees of Navidad Baptist Church and Cemetery. This cemetery served the residents of the pioneer community of Lyons, whether or not they were members of the Navidad Baptist Church. The community was established by the 1840s on land originally granted in 1831 to Kesiah Crier. In the 1870s, however, most businesses and members of the community moved north toward the new railroad town of Schulenburg, and Lyons soon ceased to exist, although some residents continued to live in the area. The oldest known burial in the cemetery dates to 1853. Many of those interred here are early Texas pioneers, including relatives of the Old Three Hundred, the first families Stephen F. Austin settled in Texas. In addition, veterans of conflicts dating to the Texas Revolution are buried here. Today, though the community of Lyons is gone, the cemetery remains an important reminder of the early town. The burial ground chronicles the lives of area pioneers. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1853 Seth and Caroline Hazel deeded land for the Navidad Baptist Church and its cemetery, serving the pioneer community of Lyons, which had grown up in the 1840s on a grant first made to Kesiah Crier in 1831. When the railroad drew business north to Schulenburg in the 1870s, Lyons withered away, but its cemetery endured. Among those buried here are early Texas pioneers—including relatives of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred—and veterans of conflicts reaching back to the Texas Revolution.
Why it matters
The cemetery is nearly all that remains of the vanished town of Lyons, a ghost town whose story shows how the railroad made and unmade frontier Texas communities.
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Related people
- · Seth F. Hazel
- · Caroline M. Hazel
- · Kesiah Crier
- · Stephen F. Austin
Themes & tags
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