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
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.
Why it matters
This hilltop graveyard holds together three peoples — Indigenous, Mexican, and Irish immigrant — at the violent birth of Texas, a rare tangible link to the polyglot origins of the Republic.
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Related people
- · John McMullen
- · James McGloin
- · Marcelino Garcia
Related events
- · Battle of Lipantitlan
- · Battle of San Patricio
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Cemetery on the Hill
San Patricio, TX
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.
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.
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.
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.