New Tabor Cemetery
Caldwell, Burleson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
New Tabor was settled by Czech and German immigrants in the 1870s and 1880s. It was named for the community of Tabor in Czechoslovakia. In February 1888, Henry Ginzel sold 3.25 acres of land for a cemetery to trustees F. Jurcak, G. Hnilica and J. Skribanek. The first recorded burial here was that of infant Jan Skrabanek in July 1888; the first adult burial was that of Martin Fojt, who died in October 1888. A number of graves are those of infants and children, attesting to the often harsh conditions of pioneer life. The many who died in 1919 may have been victims of the influenza epidemic. More than 35 military veterans are interred here. With more than 841 graves, the cemetery continues to serve the descendants of New Tabor's pioneer settlers. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
New Tabor was settled by Czech and German immigrants in the 1870s and 1880s and named for the town of Tabor in their Bohemian homeland. In 1888 Henry Ginzel sold land to community trustees for a cemetery, whose first burials that year included an infant and a settler named Martin Fojt. The many infant and child graves speak to the hardships of pioneer life, while a cluster of 1919 deaths likely marks the influenza pandemic; more than 35 military veterans rest here among over 800 graves.
Why it matters
Czech and German immigrant settlements gave central Texas an enduring cultural stamp, and their cemeteries preserve the family lines and shared hardships of that migration.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1870s and 1880s, the rolling farmland of central Texas drew waves of immigrants from central Europe, and Burleson County was squarely in their path. New Tabor was one of the communities they made — settled by Czech and German newcomers and named for the town of Tabor in their old homeland, in the Czech lands of Bohemia. Carrying an old-country place-name to a new settlement was a way of keeping a piece of home.
These were farming families arriving in the Reconstruction and Gilded Age decades, breaking ground and building churches, schools, and cemeteries as they put down roots. Central Texas became, in effect, a second Bohemia — a landscape stamped with Czech and German names, language, and custom.
The cemetery here is the community's memory book. In February 1888 Henry Ginzel sold 3.25 acres to trustees F. Jurcak, G. Hnilica, and J. Skribanek to serve as burial ground, formalizing the community's need to care for its dead close to home.
People & events
The cemetery's story opens with sorrow. Its first recorded burial, in July 1888, was that of an infant, Jan Skrabanek; the first adult laid to rest was Martin Fojt, who died that October. That a child came first is not incidental — the marker notes that a great many graves here belong to infants and children, a stark record of how harsh pioneer life could be for the youngest settlers.
A generation later the community met a different kind of grief. A cluster of deaths in 1919 may mark the reach of the great influenza epidemic, the pandemic that swept the world in 1918 and 1919 and did not spare even small rural settlements far from any city.
The ground holds other stories too. More than thirty-five military veterans are buried here, and with over 841 graves in all, the cemetery still serves the descendants of New Tabor's founding families. It is a living record — names still being added to a book first opened in 1888.
Its place in the American story
New Tabor belongs to one of the great themes of American history: immigration and the way newcomers reshaped the land they settled. The Czech and German migration into central Texas gave the region a cultural signature — in its churches, its family names, its foodways, its music — that endures generations later.
The cemetery also connects a small Texas community to a global event. The influenza pandemic of 1918–19 killed staggering numbers of people worldwide, and the possible 1919 cluster of graves here is a reminder that the pandemic reached everywhere, into the smallest and most remote of places, not just crowded cities.
And in its rows of infant graves and its more than three dozen veterans, New Tabor tells the ordinary, essential American story of a place: the hardship of settlement, the service of its people, and the continuity of families who stayed. Immigrant cemeteries like this one preserve the family lines and shared trials of a migration that helped build the country.
If you visit
Read the names as you walk — many of them Czech and German, carried across an ocean and set into Texas stone. They are the surest evidence of who built this place, and part of the pleasure of a visit is simply letting those names tell you where these families came from.
Look, too, for the small graves. The marker is honest that many burials here are of infants and children, and the little headstones make the hardships of pioneer life real in a way no summary can. If you find a run of 1919 dates, pause: those may be the community's share of a pandemic that circled the globe.
This is still an active cemetery serving descendants of the original settlers, so tread respectfully. New Tabor fits beautifully into a wider drive through the Czech-and-German country of central Texas — a region dotted with painted churches, old halls, and communities that kept their heritage. Come without a rush; the place gives most to the traveler willing to slow down and read a few stones.
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 events
- · 1918 influenza pandemic
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Tabor Brethren Church
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Around 1870, Czech-Moravian immigrants seeking fertile land and the religious freedom denied them in Europe settled this part of Burleson County. Services first met in a family home until a pastor answered the call in 1877, and the congregation built its first sanctuary in 1893, taking the name New Tabor. Rebuilt after a 1915 tornado and again in 1953, the church hosted the state convention of Czech-Moravian churches and nurtured a web of societies for men, women, and youth.
Josef Masik
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