Riverside Cemetery

🏛️The era

When Ezekiel Smith received his land grant in 1837, Texas was an independent republic. It had won its independence from Mexico only the year before, and its government was eager to attract settlers to the wide lands along rivers like the Guadalupe. Families from the American South poured in, many of them bringing enslaved people with them.

The town of Seguin was founded in this era, in the late 1830s, and took its name from Juan Seguín, a Tejano leader who fought for Texas independence. Like many young Texas towns, it was organized by a group of investors and shareholders who laid out lots and hoped to build a thriving community on the river.

Texas joined the United States in 1845, and Guadalupe County was organized soon after. Over the next decades, the region lived through the Civil War and the end of slavery, which came to Texas with emancipation in 1865. Formerly enslaved people built new lives in towns like Seguin, and they too found a final resting place in this cemetery.

By the late 1800s, Seguin had grown into an established river town. The family graveyard that had served one pioneer household was becoming a public cemetery for an entire community.

👥People & events

The story begins with a migrating family. Ezekiel Smith, born in 1781, and his wife Susanna, born in 1774, left Virginia for Texas with their four sons. In 1837, Ezekiel was granted land in what is now Guadalupe County. Susanna died in 1848 and Ezekiel in 1854, and the family graveyard they established became the seed of this cemetery.

Their son French Smith, who lived from 1809 to 1880, became one of the builders of Seguin. He was among the first shareholders of the new town, and he gave land for some of its most important public spaces: a city park, a high school, and a Methodist church. In 1880, the year of his death, he deeded the family cemetery to the City of Seguin, turning private ground into a public trust.

A public cemetery grew up just north of the Smith plot and came to be called Riverside. Others added to it. George B. Hollamon deeded more land to the city in 1888, and W. E. Goodrich added a third parcel in 1896. Combined, the grounds reached 15 acres.

Today more than 2,000 people are buried here: pioneer settlers, veterans, elected officials, business leaders, clergy, and former slaves. Over the years the cemetery sometimes fell into disrepair, until 1994, when the Friends of Riverside Cemetery, made up of concerned citizens and descendants of those buried here, took on a full restoration through volunteer work.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

Riverside Cemetery tells the story of Texas in miniature. It begins with a family that moved west from Virginia during the Republic of Texas, part of the great migration that carried Americans into the Southwest. It grows through a founder's generosity into a public institution, just as frontier towns across the country turned private beginnings into shared civic spaces.

Its burials reflect the full society that built Seguin, not only the prominent. Among the pioneers and officials lie former slaves, people whose labor helped build the region and whose freedom came only with the end of the Civil War. Their presence makes this ground part of the larger story of slavery and emancipation in America.

The cemetery's 1990s restoration adds a final chapter. Across the country, volunteers and descendants have taken on the work of saving neglected burial grounds, recognizing that these places hold the memory of whole communities. Riverside is a powerful example of what that care can accomplish.

🧭If you visit

With 15 acres and more than 2,000 burials, Riverside rewards an unhurried walk. Look for the older sections connected to the original Smith family graveyard, and watch for the graves of veterans, clergy, and civic leaders scattered across the grounds.

As you explore, remember that the people buried here include former slaves as well as pioneer founders. Some graves may be modest or hard to read, and some may be unmarked; these are part of the story too, so walk with care.

The condition of the cemetery reflects the work of the Friends of Riverside Cemetery, who restored it starting in 1994. Notice the care that has gone into the grounds, and leave them as you found them.

Riverside makes a natural part of a visit to Seguin, a historic town on the Guadalupe River named for the Tejano patriot Juan Seguín. Pair it with time in the town itself, including the kinds of public spaces French Smith helped create, for a fuller picture of how a Texas river town took shape.