Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery
Mercedes, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The town of Mercedes was platted by the Capisallo Town and Improvement Company in 1907. The Oblate Provincial Council in Austin requested that the company provide a site for a Catholic church, and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church was dedicated in February 1909. In December of that year, Carmen Nava Garza was the first to be interred on this site in a marked grave. The Capisallo Company gave four acres including this site to the Brownsville Diocese in 1910, and the cemetery was named for the parish church. Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery served those who were not buried on private ranches outside Mercedes. With more than 2,341 marked and 56 unmarked sites, the cemetery continues to serve Mercedes. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Mercedes was laid out by a land-improvement company in 1907 during the railroad-driven boom that opened the Lower Rio Grande Valley to farming and new towns. At the Oblate order's request the company set aside ground for Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, dedicated in 1909, and this adjoining cemetery received its first marked burial that December. With thousands of graves, it became the resting place for townspeople who were not buried on the surrounding private ranches.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the story of a Catholic, largely Mexican-American community that grew with the Valley's early-20th-century settlement, offering a resting place for those beyond the old ranch world.
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Related people
- · Carmen Nava Garza
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church
Mercedes, TX
After a land company donated ground in 1908, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church was dedicated on Hidalgo Street in 1909, gaining its first resident pastor in 1912 and, in 1922, a new brick church under Father Ivor Gourmelen. From 1915 to 1961 the Sisters of Mercy ran a parochial school, and the parish became the mother church for seven other congregations while fostering a dozen missions across Hidalgo and Cameron counties. It stood at the center of Catholic life in the Mercedes area.
Temple Beth Israel
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During the 1910s, Jewish families across Hidalgo and Cameron Counties gathered to form a small congregation in the Rio Grande Valley, worshipping in rented rooms with lay readers and a visiting student rabbi for the high holy days. In 1935 they built Temple Beth Israel, designed by Weslaco architect Newell Waters, its members serving the region as merchants, jewelers, and newspaper publishers. As nearby McAllen and Harlingen grew, the congregation dwindled and voted to dissolve in 1948, its members joining neighboring temples.
First Presbyterian Church
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