Old Cemetery on the Hill
San Patricio, San Patricio County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery is believed to have been used for generations by Indian tribes and Mexican settlers who lived in this area previous to Anglo colonization. Following the establishment of San Patricio de Hibernia in 1830 by empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin, the colonists continued to use the old cemetery on the hill. According to local oral tradition, early graves in the cemetery were marked by wooden crosses and stones bearing Spanish and English inscriptions. Among those interred here are Lt. Marcelino Garcia, who as killed at the battle of Lipantitlan in 1835. Also buried here are soldiers who died in the battle of San Patricio on February 27, 1836; James McGloin, whose grave was never marked; victims of diseases such as scarlet fever; men killed fighting duels; and many early settlers and their descendants. After a new cemetery was consecrated at San Patricio by father Antoine Maury in 1872, the old cemetery on the hill was used infrequently. The old cemetery was neglected for many years until restoration efforts were begun in the 1960's. Some tombstones were destroyed or lost over the years, but the historic graveyard is now maintained. (1990)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This hilltop cemetery is believed to have served Native peoples and Mexican settlers long before Anglo colonization reached the area. After Irish empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin founded San Patricio de Hibernia in 1830, the colonists kept burying their dead here, beneath wooden crosses and stones inscribed in Spanish and English. Among those laid to rest are Lt. Marcelino García, killed at the 1835 battle of Lipantitlán, and soldiers who fell at the battle of San Patricio in 1836.
Why it matters
Few burying grounds hold so many layers of Texas history at once—Indigenous, Mexican, and Irish immigrant—alongside the graves of those who died in the fighting for Texas independence.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Long before Texas was a republic or a state, the country along the Nueces River was home to Native peoples, and later to Mexican settlers who ranched and farmed in this part of the Coastal Bend. The hill that holds this cemetery is believed to have been a burial ground for generations before any Anglo or Irish colonist arrived.
In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Mexico opened Texas to colonization through empresarios, contractors who were granted land in return for bringing in settlers. Two of them, John McMullen and James McGloin, recruited Irish Catholic families, and in 1830 they established San Patricio de Hibernia, named for Ireland's patron saint.
Within a few years that quiet colony stood in the path of revolution. As tensions between Texas settlers and Mexico's central government boiled over in 1835 and 1836, the Nueces country became a contested borderland, and fighting came to San Patricio's doorstep.
People & events
The founders were McMullen and McGloin, whose colony brought Irish families to a place they had never seen, under a Mexican flag. The settlers kept using the old burying ground they found on the hill. According to local tradition, their early graves were marked with wooden crosses and with stones carved in both Spanish and English, which neatly sums up the mixed world of early South Texas.
The Texas Revolution left its mark here. Lt. Marcelino García, killed at the battle of Lipantitlán in 1835, lies in this cemetery. So do soldiers who died at the battle of San Patricio on February 27, 1836, when Mexican forces under General José de Urrea surprised a party of Texian volunteers in the town. It was one of the opening blows of the Mexican army's campaign along the coast that spring.
Other graves tell quieter stories. James McGloin himself is buried here, though his grave was never marked. Victims of diseases like scarlet fever rest here, along with men killed in duels and generations of settlers and their descendants. After Father Antoine Maury consecrated a new cemetery in 1872, the hilltop saw fewer burials. It fell into neglect until restoration began in the 1960s, and although some tombstones were lost, the ground is cared for today.
Its place in the American story
This hill holds several layers of American history in a single plot of ground. Indigenous burials, Mexican settlers, Irish immigrants, and soldiers from the war that created the Republic of Texas all share this place. Few sites show so plainly that the American Southwest was multicultural long before it became part of the United States.
The Irish colony of San Patricio is also a reminder that immigration to America did not only come through East Coast ports. Some newcomers arrived through Mexico's own colonization program and became Texans, and eventually Americans, in the process.
And the battle dead buried here connect this quiet hill to the Texas Revolution, whose outcome led to the Republic of Texas, to annexation, and in time to the war with Mexico that redrew the map of the continent. Big national turning points began in small places like this.
If you visit
This is a place for slow walking and quiet reflection. Many graves are old, and some markers have been lost over time, so empty-seeming ground may still hold burials. Step carefully and respectfully.
Look for the mix of languages and styles in the surviving stones. They are a direct echo of the Spanish-and-English world the early colonists lived in. Keep in mind that some of the people named on the marker, including James McGloin, have no marked grave, so their presence here is felt rather than seen.
San Patricio makes a meaningful stop on a Coastal Bend road trip for anyone interested in the Texas Revolution or in Irish Texas. Pair it with other revolution-era sites in the region and you'll get a fuller picture of how the struggle unfolded far from the Alamo.
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 people
- · John McMullen
- · James McGloin
- · Marcelino García
Related events
- · Battle of Lipantitlán
- · Battle of San Patricio
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Cemetery on the Hill
San Patricio, TX
On a rise above San Patricio lies a burial ground older than the Anglo town, used by Indian peoples and Mexican settlers before empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin planted their Irish colony of San Patricio de Hibernia in 1830. The colonists kept using the old cemetery, and its graves record the turbulence of the Texas Revolution — Lt. Marcelino Garcia, killed at Lipantitlan in 1835, and soldiers who fell in the Battle of San Patricio in 1836. Empresario McGloin himself lies here in an unmarked grave, alongside settlers lost to scarlet fever, duels, and the ordinary attrition of frontier life.
San Patricio de Hibernia
San Patricio, TX
Founded in 1830 by empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin as the capital of their Irish colony, San Patricio de Hibernia—named for the patron saint of Ireland—stood as a lonely frontier outpost when the Texas Revolution erupted. On February 27, 1836, General José Urrea's division of Santa Anna's army surprised and overwhelmed a small Texan party under Johnson, killing several and marching the survivors to Matamoros as prisoners. After the Texan victory at San Jacinto the town was destroyed and its people scattered, and this 1936 monument names its early settlers, soldiers, and notable descendants.
In Memory of Captain Thomas K. Pearson
San Patricio, TX
This monument names the Texan volunteers cut down at and near San Patricio on February 27, 1836, buried the next day by Father Thomas Malloy, along with local sons of San Patricio who perished in the Goliad massacre that March. Among them were Irish-Catholic colonists of the San Patricio settlement caught up in the violent birth of the Texas Republic. A pair of survivors, spared at Goliad through a Mexican colonel's intervention, are remembered here as well.
Fort Lipantitlan
Banquete, TX
A Spanish fort rose near a Lipan Apache village on this site in 1728, the settlement bearing an Aztec-derived name. Regarrisoned by Mexican troops around 1831 to discourage Anglo-American colonization, the earthen post became a flashpoint of the Texas Revolution: Texan forces captured it in November 1835 and turned back a counterattack the next day. It saw fighting again in 1842 before being abandoned to ruin.