Peal-Pleasant Valley Cemetery
Wimberley, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Twenty-three known graves lie within the fence of the present 1.7-acre peal-Pleasant Valley cemetery. The burials along with the foundations of the Pleasant Valley Baptist church and Valley Ford school are the only remnants of an early Hays county community. Settlement began with John Bennett Peal (1834-1888), a North Carolina native who arrived in Texas before 1885. In 1858, Peal married Mary Webb and in 1872, the Peals settled in Hays county, where they purchased 1,920 acres from T.N. Waul. Built on a hill, the Peal House would be known as missionary ridge because of the family’s strong Baptist faith. The Peals helped to establish Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in 1875. The church building also house the Valley Ford School when it was created two years later. In 1883, peal donated five acres of land for a one-room schoolhouse. The community remained rural serving the local needs of the few area families. The school became the center of activity for this section of the Blanco Valley. Children attending the school came from the Burchett, Edwards, George, Haster, Pape, Pearl, Sachtleben, Schubert, and Shook families. These families, many from different backgrounds, forged bonds through lifelong friendships, partnerships and marriages. Several of these names are represented through the graves at Peal-Pleasant Valley Cemetery. The earliest grave is that of Marthe A.E George (1849-1881). The cemetery has been known variously as Valley Ford Pleasant Valley and Burchett/Peal. This rural cemetery provides a final resting place for several pioneering families who forged a life for themselves and their descendants in Texas. Historic cemetery -2019 / Name and Date Plaque Circa 1881
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This 1.7-acre cemetery, with its 23 known graves, is nearly all that remains of an early Hays County community. Settlement began with North Carolina native John Bennett Peal, who with his wife Mary bought 1,920 acres in 1872 and helped found Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in 1875; the church also housed the Valley Ford School. Children from the Burchett, Edwards, George, and other pioneer families made the schoolhouse the center of Blanco Valley life, and several of those family names rest in the cemetery today.
Why it matters
The burial ground preserves the memory of the intertwined pioneer families who built a rural community in the Texas Hill Country.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Bennett Peal
- · Mary Webb Peal
- · Martha A.E. George
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mt. Gainer
Dripping Springs, TX
Pioneer rancher Joseph "Grandpa" Gainer settled here in 1858, and the high point on his land gave its name to the farming and ranching community that grew along the south fork of Onion Creek. By the early twentieth century Mt. Gainer had general stores, mills, churches, a school, and a farmers' union that anchored its social life. After the school consolidated with Dripping Springs in 1944, the village faded, leaving only rock fences and a few buildings behind.
Mt. Gainer Village
Hays County, TX
Mt. Gainer was once a thriving rural Texas settlement, complete with its own school, that slowly emptied as the twentieth century wore on. By 1998 only fragments remained — a school cistern and steps, a teacherage, native rock fences, and a scattering of buildings on private land — the quiet skeleton of a community that had faded away. It stands among the many small crossroads settlements that rose and vanished across the Texas Hill Country.
W. T. Chapman
Dripping Springs, TX
Georgia-born William Thomas Chapman came to the Dripping Springs area after being wounded and captured in the Civil War, and by the 1870s had become the community's postmaster, stagecoach operator, and driving civic force. He gave land for a church, a Baptist congregation, and the Dripping Springs Academy, and in 1881 platted the town itself from his wife Martha's inherited acreage, naming the main street for their son. A merchant and Confederate-veterans organizer, he helped found Camp Ben McCulloch.
Ragsdale-Jackman-Yarbrough House
San Marcos, TX
Built in 1868 by Peter C. Ragsdale, a veteran of the Republic of Texas army, this San Marcos house later sheltered a girls' school run by his widow Elmira before passing in 1891 to "Uncle Billy" Jackman. Jackman lived a quintessential Texas life — a trail driver to Kansas in the 1870s and '80s, later Hays County sheriff, town postmaster, and president of the Trail Drivers Association. Restored by educators in 1947, the home links the frontier, cattle-drive, and civic eras of Central Texas.