New Red Rock Cemetery
Red Rock, Bastrop County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As early as the 1850s, settlers of the community of Red Rock had established homes in this area. In 1870, the Red Rock Post Office opened, and by the mid-1870s, the settlement supported the Red Rock Male and Female Academy. The town grew, with about 150 residents by the mid-1880s. In 1890, the MK&T Railroad built about one mile east of Red Rock, and residents moved their homes and businesses here. The growing community established this cemetery in 1913, when L.A. and Adirenne Turner conveyed one acre of land to trustees L.G. Ellis, Gus Jung and N.B. Harris. The first documented burial is that of S.B. Harris, who died on April 22, 1913. In 1922, the cemetery's Turner Section was established when the Turners doanted an dditional quarter acre. In 1952, the Rev. Eugene Stewart Neuenschwander deeded almost half an acre to the cemetery, and in 1965 and 1993, the Petty family donated land and lots to the cemetery association, which maintains the burial ground today. Burials include those of miliatry veterans and members of franternal organizations, as well as generations of area residents, forever linking the New Red Rock Cemetery to the community's rich history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2003
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlers reached the Red Rock area by the 1850s, and by the mid-1870s the community supported a post office and the Red Rock Male and Female Academy. When the MK&T Railroad laid track about a mile east in 1890, residents picked up their homes and businesses and moved to the rails—and in 1913 established this cemetery on land given by L. A. and Adrienne Turner. Families have donated ground repeatedly since, and the cemetery association still tends it today.
Why it matters
The move from old Red Rock to the railroad line, recorded in this cemetery's founding, captures how the coming of the railroads redrew the map of rural Texas towns.
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Related people
- · L. A. Turner
- · Adrienne Turner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Red Rock Cemetery
Red Rock, TX
Red Rock grew up where the Austin–Port Lavaca stagecoach road crossed the Bastrop–Gonzales trail, a typical crossroads settlement of frontier Texas that shifted a mile east in 1892 to meet the new railroad. Its old cemetery holds more than 370 graves, including trail drivers and veterans of the Texas Revolution, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. The first documented burial dates to 1864, though earlier homemade sandstone markers may have been lost.
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