Persons Known to Have Been Buried in de Zavala Cemetery
San Jacinto, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Vice President Lorenzo De Zavala 1789-1836, Emily West De Zavala (no date), Ricardo De Zavala 1835-1906, Minna Wadzick De Zavala (no date), Emily Smith De Zavala 1847-1883, Darwin De Zavala 1872-1881, Edward Theodore De Zavala 1863-1882, Katherine E. De Zavala 1911-1914, Leroy De Zavala 1905-1954, Lorenzo De Zavala III (no date), Sidney De Zavala 1870-1906, General Manuel Fernandez Castrillon died 1836, Frederick Dulitz 1873-1876, Peter Jefferson Duncan 1799-1836, Doctor Dunlap (no date), Willa Folk 1850-1871, Amy Inez Higginbotham 1878-1915, Lillian Marie Higginbotham 1901-1903, Emily De Zavala Jenkins (no date), Thomas Jenkins (no date), Ethel K. Joyner 1909-1912, Katherine S. Joyner 1887-1911, Frederick Nitsche 1794-1863, William Nitsche (no date), Emma De Zavala Singleton 1870-1938, James Singleton 1881-1912, David Thomas 1801-1836, Emily C. De Zavala Weaver 1861-1892, Ethel Gertrude Weaver (no date), Charles D. Wilcox 1873-1909 (recorded-1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground near the San Jacinto battlefield holds the remains of Lorenzo de Zavala (1789–1836), the statesman who served as the first vice president of the Republic of Texas, along with generations of his family. It also received figures caught up in the 1836 revolution, including the Mexican general Manuel Fernández Castrillón, who fell at San Jacinto, and other men who died that pivotal year. The recorded roll of names spans from the republic's founding into the early twentieth century.
Why it matters
The cemetery gathers, in one small plot, both a founding father of Texas and figures from the war that created it—an intimate link to the birth of the Republic of Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Lorenzo de Zavala
- · Emily West de Zavala
- · Manuel Fernández Castrillón
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lorenzo de Zavala
Houston, TX
Lorenzo de Zavala was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the first vice president of the Republic of Texas. His plank-covered log house near Harrisburg, built in 1829, sheltered the wounded as a hospital after the decisive 1836 Battle of San Jacinto, and it was there that de Zavala died that November.
Site of the Home in 1836 of Dr. George Moffit Patrick
Deer Park, TX
This was the 1836 homesite of Dr. George Moffit Patrick (1801–1889), a pioneer surveyor of early Texas. After the decisive Battle of San Jacinto, the victorious Texas army encamped here, and the young Republic's cabinet met on the grounds. The State of Texas marked the spot in 1936, the centennial of independence.
Anson Jones
Houston, TX
Born in Massachusetts in 1798 and trained as a physician, Anson Jones came to Texas in 1833 and fought as a private at San Jacinto during the war for independence. He rose swiftly through the Republic—congressman, first Grand Master of Texas Masons, minister to the United States, secretary of state, and finally president in 1844. On February 19, 1846, he lowered the Lone Star flag and declared 'the Republic of Texas is no more,' earning his lasting nickname, 'the architect of annexation.'
Ellis Benson
Houston, TX
Vermont-born Ellis Benson fought in the Black Hawk War before Captain Amasa Turner recruited him in New Orleans for the Texas Army in 1835. Arriving in early 1836, he marched with Sam Houston's army and helped work one of the 'Twin Sisters' cannons that proved decisive at the Battle of San Jacinto. He kept soldiering afterward — wounded on the south Texas frontier in 1839 — before settling in Houston as a carpenter and local officeholder.