Phillips Cemetery
Dripping Springs, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Early settlers John and Nancy Phillips deeded land at this site to the Methodist Episcopal Church, So, in 1880. A small church was built and was dedicated on March 13, 1880. As was customary, members of the community were buried near the church. The earliest documented burial is that of B. G. Sorrell, who died on March 13, 1880. Among the graves here are those of numerous early settlers to the Dripping Springs area and sixteen Civil War veterans. In 1901 land for a new church building was acquired on the Old San Marcos Road (now Ranch Road 12). The original Methodist church building was sold and moved, leaving the site to be used solely for the Methodist cemetery. Families cared for individual graves, while members of the community maintained the cemetery. In the early 1920s the local blacksmith, William S. Garnett, ordered caskets and assisted with funeral arrangements. The Methodist church donated the cemetery property to the community in 1940, and in 1962 a cemetery association was formed to maintain the historic graveyard. Phillips Cemetery, as it was known locally, became the official name of the burial ground.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1880 settlers John and Nancy Phillips deeded this land to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, where a small sanctuary was dedicated that March. Following frontier custom, the community buried its dead beside the church, and the graves came to include sixteen Civil War veterans and many of Dripping Springs' earliest families. When a new church rose on the San Marcos road in 1901, the old site endured as a cemetery, tended by families and, by 1962, a formal association.
Why it matters
The site captures how church, community, and burial ground were once inseparable in rural Texas, and its rows of Civil War veterans root a Hill Country settlement in the nation's larger story.
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Related people
- · John Phillips
- · Nancy Phillips
- · William S. Garnett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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